LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE 



UNSPEAKABLE GIFT 



The Gift of Eternal Life Through 
Jesus Christ Our Lord. 



y 

tS BY 

J. H. PETTINGELL, A.M., 

Late Chaplain at Antwerp, Belgium. Author of "Homiletieal Index 
"Theological Trilemma"; "Will Satan Live Forever?" "Language- 
its Nature und Functions"; " Platonism versus Christianity"; 
" Bible Terminology " ; " The Life Everlasting "; " What did 
Christ .Teach?" etc.; etc. 




The Gift of God is Eternal Life Through 
Jesus Christ our Lord."— Paul. 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION 

By REV, EDWARD WHITE . - — 

Minster of St. Paul's Chapel, London, England. 

YARMOUTH, ME.: 
I . C. "WELLCOME:. 

Philadelphia, Pa.: J. D. BROWN, 704 Arch Street. 
London, England: ELLIOT STOCK, 62 Paternoster Row. 

1884. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1S34, 
By I. C. WELLCOME, 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Y^shington, 



Thurston & Co., Portland, Me,, 
JElecirotypers and Printers. 



PREFACE. 



The volume entitled The Theological Trilemma was pub 
lished in 1878, though written six or seven years earlier. 
This was followed, in 1881, by Platonism versus Christian- 
ity, and a few months after, by Bible Terminology , and, in 
1882, by The Life Everlasting, a large volume of 800 pages, 
including the two smaller volumes of the previous year, to- 
gether with a " Symposium," to which twenty representative 
men of various evangelical churches in this country and 
Europe kindly contributed brief papers. 

My object in issuing another volume so soon on the same 
general subject is not that I may re-argue this question upon 
any new basis, — for why should this be clone when no one 
has yet answered the argument already offered, and no one 
can, as I am fully assured if he would deal honestly with the 
Word of God ? Certainly, the obvious letter of its testimony 
is most emphatically, and everywhere, that "The wages of 
sin is Death, and the gift of God is Eternal Life through 
Jesus Christ our Lord"; and it is only by putting a schol- 
astic and unnatural meaning upon these crucial terms, 
"Life" and "Death," that the Scriptures can be made to 
seem to teach something contrary to what they actually 
declare. But in view of the very general and increasing 
interest in this question, and of the urgent calls for another 
edition of my first volume, now out of print, I have thought 
I might better meet the wants of inquirers by putting the 



4 



PREFACE. 



argument, which is mainly Scriptural, into a more compact 
and popular form, in a smaller volume than by re-issu- 
ing the old volume, or any of the later ones. The 
Theological Trilemma was written fourteen years ago, 
while I was in a foreign country, under peculiar cir- 
cumstances of isolation, and without ever having seen 
any American work or tract in advocacy of the doctrine 
of Eternal Life only through Christ by redemption, — indeed, 
most of the literature on this subject has made its appear- 
ance since that time, — and now, after having devoted all 
these subsequent years to the further stucfy of this question, 
and having read everything I could lay hold of that seemed 
worthy of attention, on all sides of it, and after much inter- 
course and correspondence with Christian scholars who have 
embraced this doctrine, my earlier views, though very 
generally confirmed, have taken a more definite and con- 
gruous form on this and other questions with which it is so 
intimately connected. The second work above mentioned 
is a simple monograph ; the third is devoted to the discus- 
sion of certain eschatological terms — neither of them dealing 
with the whole question — and as for the last volume, The 
Life Everlasting— the second edition of which is now nearly 
or quite exhausted — it is too large and too expensive for 
general popular circulation. 

While the present volume may be considered as a new 
presentation of the old argument, it contains much that is 
new, and is substantially a new work, and takes a new title, 
yet it is proper to say— what will be obvious to those who are 
familiar with the other volumes— th&t I have not hesitated to 
avail myself of any matter in them that would serve my pur- 
pose in preparing this; and especially, as my argument is 
mainly Scriptural, I have freely employed the same textual 



PREFACE. 



5 



citations, and many of the comments thereon ; but I have 
used nothing without re-writing and condensing it as much 
as possible. 

The use of Scripture language and forms of expression 
has been so frequent throughout the volume that it has 
not seemed important to encumber its pages with references 
to book, chapter and verse, in these numerous incidental 
and indirect quotations, unless they have been made the 
subject of special comment or the foundation of an argu- 
ment. These quotations have generally been made from the 
old standard version, excepting in special cases, when new 
light seems to have been thrown upon any passage by the 
revision, inasmuch as the old version still is, and will long 
be, the one with which Bible readers are the most familiar — 
for it is not so much to minute critical renderings that I 
would direct attention as to the plain, obvious sense of the 
text under an}' honest rendering. 

The question under discussion is not one of hermeneutics 
and critical points, but of fair and honest dealing with the 
simple literal sense of the Word of God. It is not what pos- 
sible meaning can be put into those numerous passages of 
Scripture that threaten Death as the end of sin. and promise 
Life — Life Eternal to all true believers in Christ ? how they 
can be so rendered as to bring them into agreement with 
any popular system of philosophy ? but, Do they mean what 
the plain, literal sense of the words import, or are they 
to be taken in some metaphorical, spiritualistic, ethical, un- 
real sense, quite different, and even contrary, to their 
ordinary sense ? This is a question which every inquirer 
must determine for himself, and, happily, one which the un- 
lettered Christian disciple is quite as competent to determine 
as the scholastic theologian and learned dialectician, yea, 



6 



PREFACE. 



better able to determine correctly; for when one's mind has 
become sophisticated, and his processes of thought trained 
into any psychological or speculative system, he will be sure 
to read that system into the letter of God's TTord, and con- 
strue its doctrines in harmony with it. This was the very 
thought of our Lord when He exclaimed, " I thank Thee, O 
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these 
things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them 
unto babes." This was the ground of Paul's frequent and 
earnest warning to the early disciples: " Beware lest any 
man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit and after 
the tradition of men." "I fear lest by any means, as the 
serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds 
should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." 

The manifest drift of the present age is towards a religion 
of science and philosophy, and away from the simple truths 
of the Gospel. Many well-meaning but sophisticated minds 
are being led away by the delusion that these truths must be 
brought within the scope of natural laws. They would 
bring the facts and doctrines which it reveals to the test of 
reason and science , as though the Christian religion were one 
of the many forms of a natural religion, only more scientific, 
purer and better. Here is the real source of the confusion 
and darkness and doubt of many who would become scien- 
tific and philosophical Christians— if Christians at all— forget- 
ting that the first step in the knowledge of divine things is 
to become little children at the feet of the Master. The 
supreme truths of the Christian religion are revealed, not to 
our reason, but to our faith. They do not come within the 
sphere or scope of natural science, or human philosophy. 
Its great facts are altogether Divine and supernatural, and 
until this is apprehended and allowed, no real progress can 



PREFACE. 



7 



be made in the right direction. They are above nature and 
cannot be explained by natural laws. 

The creation of the world, in the beginning, was a super- 
natural act : and whatever speculations one may entertain as 
to the mode of this creation, to deny its supernatural char- 
acter, as though it could be explained by natural laws, is to 
to be an atheist. The same is true of the creation of man. 
He is not the outcome of self -operating processes, but the 
special object of Divine creation, which no law of progres- 
sive development can explain. 

Sin itself is in opposition to all law, and nature provides 
no antidote to the death to which it inevitably leads, nor any 
way of recovery from its ruin. If there be any remedy or 
recovery from its fatal poison, it must be supernaturally pro- 
vided. It is just here that we find the radical difference be- 
tween our holy religion and all the other systems of religion 
the world has ever seen. This is given from heaven. As 
for the others, they are, at best, but human devices, " broken 
cisterns that can hold no water." 

The New Birth, the Resurrection from the dead, and the 
Life everlasting, are not the orderly steps in any natural 
progress, as, alas! too many in this scientific age are en- 
deavoring to show. They are truths beyond the reach of 
scientific discovery. There is no law of nature that can ex- 
plain, or prove, or disprove them. They are specially and 
divinely revealed to our faith, and are to be received because 
they are revealed, and as they are revealed, if at all. 

It is with the earnest hope and prayer that I may be able 
to contribute something more, if it be only a little, to with- 
stand the rationalizing drift and tendency of the times away 
from the simple Gospel of Christ, and to recall men to the 
faith once delivered to the saints on this question of Eternal 



8 



PREFACE. 



Life, which occupies such a fundamental position in the 
Gospel system, that I have undertaken this new work. 

I am truly thankful for the evidence I have that my past 
efforts in this direction have not been altogether vain. It is 
not indeed a pleasant thing to throw one's self across the 
track of any popular sentiment, to incur the sincere pity 
or the reproaches of beloved Christian brethren, by opposing 
a doctrine which they have been educated from childhood to 
regard as a part of the evangelical system ; to meet the con- 
temptuous sneers of the learned leaders, or would-be leaders 
of orthodox doctrine, or the carping criticisms of theological 
dialecticians, or the dignified silence of wise conservatives 
who will listen to nothing that is not authorized by tradition, 
and the voice of the Church. Were I to consult my own 
personal comfort and convenience and reputation among 
men, I would willingly remain silent ; but when I consider 
the origin of this dogma of immortality apart from God and 
without a Divine Savior — how unscriptural it is ; what re- 
proach it casts on the character of our Heavenly Father ; 
how it depreciates the work of Christ in our redemption, and 
obscures the luster of the Gospel, and hinders its progress ; 
what a fruitful source of error it is, and always must be; and 
what mischief it is working at the present day in encourag- 
ing skepticism and disbelief in the Bible, and in the God of 
the Bible, I cannot hesitate to protest against it in the name 
of Him to whom I must and will be loyal, come what may. 
But though I speak with the earnestness of conviction, I de- 
sire to speak the truth in love. I hope that no leaven of 
bitterness or uncharitable judgment towards those whose 
false doctrine I have felt constrained to oppose, will be found 
in the pages of this book. Indeed, when I remember how, 
under the same false training which they have had, I too 



PREFACE. 



9 



was led away by this delusion, and how, for a quarter of a 
century, I preached and contended for this error, the falsity 
of which I now see by the grace of God, I have no heart or 
occasion for bitter words, Nor do I make any complaint of 
peculiar hardship undergone in this cause ; nor do I feel 
that I have suffered more for my faith in this Gospel doctrine, 
and for my persistent advocacy of it, than has been the lot, 
in all ages, of those who have opposed any popular religious 
error, and have stood for the simple doctrines of the Gospel. 

Indeed, I am greatly encouraged by the kind words that 
have come to me from unknown correspondents in all parts 
of this country, and from across the water, and by the assur- 
ances that this truth for which I am contending has taken 
possession of so many Christian hearts and minds, and 
already numbers in the aggregate such a host of confessors, 
among whom are some of the foremost Biblical scholars and 
earnest workers in all branches of the Church, and a goodly 
number of our devoted missionaries among the heathen, and 
by the knowledge that I have been permitted to have some 
agency, however humble it may be, in securing this result. 

If my dear Christian brethren who now look upon this 
doctrine of Eternal Life only through Christ as a dangerous 
heresy could, by any means, be induced to lay aside their 
traditional notions long enough to see how perfectly this 
doctrine agrees with all the plain declarations of Scripture, 
from first -to last; how it relieves the character of God of 
those fearful aspersions which a heathen philosophy casts 
upon it ; how it magnifies His holy law and makes it honor- 
able ; how it exalts and glorifies the Son of God, our Savior, 
who redeemed us from death, and " brought Life and Immor- 
tality to light through the Gospel"; how it confirms and 
strengthens and beautifies every doctrine of the evangelical 



10 



PREFACE. 



system, and throws a flood of light upon those that have 
been made obscure and hard to be received ; how it stops the 
mouths of infidels and scoffers, and takes away all their 
plausible objections to the Bible, and the God of the Bible, 
and, in short, what a relief it brings to the burdened hearts 
of sincere believers who are wrestling with irrepressible 
doubts, and trying to see the justice and goodness of God 
through the dark clouds that a false theodicy has thrown 
round Him; and who do love and trust Him, in spite of all 
their doubts, and would fain commend Him to others if they 
knew how to do it, — I am sure they would most joyfully 
accept of this truth themselves, and heartily thank me, as 
not a few have already done, for so persistently urging it 
upon their attention. 

With this humble volume, my work is evidently almost, if 
not quite, finished. I am apprised by the infirmities of ad- 
vancing age, and by the disabilities under which these pages 
have been written, that my course is fast drawing to its 
close. Would that my efforts in this cause had begun 
earlier, and had been more vigorously prosecuted ; would 
that this my last work were more worthy of the cause it 
advocates and of the Master to whom it is dedicated. But 
such as it is, I send it forth with the earnest prayer that He 
who knows how to employ weak and imperfect means for 
the accomplishment of His gracious purposes, and whose 
pleasure it is to set forth his precious treasures " in earthen 
vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and 
not of us," maybe pleased to accept and abundantly bless 
this inadequate exhibit of His Unspeakable Gift, — the 

Gift of " Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord." 

j U p 

N. W. corner of Broad and Pine Sts., 
Philadelphia, Pa., 
May, 1884. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Introduction. By Rev. Edward White, minister of St. 
Paul's Chapel, London, Eng. . . . 17-22 

PART THE FIRST. 

The Question of Human Immortality Considered in the 
Light of History, Reason and Philosophy, 

CHAPTER I. 

In Limine — The Nature and Limitations of the Question. 

The importance of understanding, at the outset, what the 
question to be discussed is, and is not. 1. It is not a ques- 
tion of fact as to our immortality or non-immortality ; 
but as to the source and the grounds of our hope of im- 
mortality. 2. Not as to the nature and destiny of the 
Soul of man; but of man himself. 3. Not primarily 
concerning Future punishment; but just the opposite, 
The Gift of Eternal Life. 4. Not of translations or ver- 
sions; but of loyalty to the plain letter of God's Word. 
5. Not in opposition to the Evangelical system ; but in 
support of it. . . . . . . 25-36 

CHAPTER II. 

The Deathless Nature of Man — Origin and History of 
the Dogma. 

A very ancient, very plausible, very popular doctrine. 
The Notions of the Ancients ; Socrates ; Plato ; the 
Hebrews; the Pharisees; What Christ Taught ; Paul; 
Peter; the Early Fathers; Entrance of Platonic Philoso- 
phy into the Church; Three Schools, that of the First 
Disciples, of Origen, of Augustine ; Decree of Leo X. 37-47 

Note. The Three Theories of Immortality. . 48 

11 



12 



CONTENTS, 



CHAPTER III. PAGE 

Disastrous Influence of this False Dogma. 

The Fathers of the Reformation accomplished much, but 
not everything that needed to be done. The root of 
the Evil not extirpated. Consequences of the belief in 
universal immortality ; Darkness and distress of mind. 
Skepticism ; Sanctuary deserted ; Progress of the Gospel 
greatly hindered. The true Gospel doctrine credible ; 
not obnoxious to the reproach which the false dogma 
throws upon it. . . . . . 49-62 

Note. From H. Constable's Duration and Nature, etc. 62-64 



CHAPTER IY. 

The Teachings of Nature and Reason. 

The Bible, the only source of positive knowledge on this 
question. Impossible for science or philosophy to give 
any reliable information concerning it. The folly of rely- 
ing on human reason when we have a Divine Revelation 
on the very question. Some of the arguments for univer- 
sal immortality from Nature and Reason examined, and 
their weakness shown. I. The Nature of the Soul. II. 
The capacities and capabilities of man. III. Human 
instincts and aspirations. IY. Analogy of Nature. 65-79 



CHAPTER Y. 

Natural and Rational Arguments (Continued). 

Y. The General Belief of mankind. It is a mistake to 
suppose it favored the philosophers' doctrine of univer- 
sal immortality, the reverse is true. YI. The goodness 
of God supposed to be impeached, if this be an error, by 
its general prevalence. But other errors have prevailed. 
YIL The supposed utility of this doctrine. It works 
mischief instead of good. .... 80-96 



Note. From Tinling's Promise of Life. . . 97-101 



CONTENTS. 



13 



PART THE SECOND. page 

The Question of Human Immortality Considered in the 
Light of Kevelation. 

CHAPTER VI. 

LOGODiEDALY. 

Do we really desire to know what the Scriptures teach. 
They are not like heathen Oracles. False Exegesis. 
New meanings imposed on the plain terms of Scripture. 
Biblical Lexicons. Examples Matt. 7 : 13, Rom. 5 : 12. 
Nephesh, psuche, zde, Metaphors. Various passages 
cited; protest against sophistical treatment of God's 
word. . . . . . . . 104-119 

Note. Whately's Lecture on Life and death. . 120-122 

CHAPTER VII. 
The Creation of Man. 
Historical verity of the Mosaic record. Man last created ; 
in the image of God; from the dust of the ground; 
breath of life; living soul, Milton cited. The name 
Adam, earth-made not spiritual and immortal at 
first. The Tree of Life. Theophilus, Calmet's diction- 
ary. Dr. Hodge's Systematic Theology. . . 123-138 

CHAPTER VIII. 
The Genesis of Sin and Death. 
The trial of the first pair. The temptation. The serpent, 
change in his nature. The Death threatened could 
not have been understood in the sense of a threefold 
death as now interpreted. Barnes cited. "In the 
day." Adam Clark. The curse fell upon the serpent, 
and on the ground, but not upon Adam and Eve as a 
Curse. Debarred the Tree of Life; Milton; Smith's 
Bible Diet. Irenaeus cited. Paradise restored. Trial 
of the race in Adam not a cause for regret, but for 
thanksgiving. The inferior before the superior ; death 
before life Eternal. First and Second Adam. . 139-154 

Note. From Baker's Mystery of Creation and of Man. 155-158 



14 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER IX. 



PAGE 



Inferential Evidence. 
L Animal, Sacrifices. EL Silence of Scripture. 
Animal Sacrifices instituted by God. immediately after 
the Fall. Significance of the Death of the Animal. 
Death of Christ actual. Lt Silence of Scripture. What 
traditional theology teaches. Not one hint of natural 
immortality in all the Bible. The Dogma not demon- 
strable. Pres. Dwight cited. The transference of 
aionios from zoe to psucke. What is asserted of the 
righteous as their peculiar portion, claimed for the 
wicked also. Simmons' Manuel, Texts cited. Bartlett's 
book cited and criticized. Dr. G. D. Boardman cited. 
The doctrine said to be " assumed n in the Bible. 159-174 



The Law has a twofold application. True also of the 
words Death and Life; but in senses that are real and 
actual, not metaphysical. Numerous citations from the 
Old Testament with running comments. Numerous 
citations from the New Testament with comments, Dr. 
Bartlett cited. In consistency of the advocates of the 
popular dogma. . . . . . 175-193 

Note. The New Congregational Creed. . . 193-194 

CHAPTER XL 
The Life Given — The L'nspeakable Gift. 
The New Testament a New Revelation — revelation of a 
new life. Zoe life. Numerous citations from the New 
Testament, direct and indirect, with comments. . 195-213 
Note. From Drummond's Natural Law, etc. . . 213-214 



Two classes, two opposite destinies contrasted, numerous 
citations, direct and indirect, from the Old and New 
Testaments, with comments. Parallel between the 
First and Second Adam in 1 Cor. 15. The death that 



CHAPTER X. 
The Death Incurred. 



CHAPTER XII. 
Life Versus Death. 



Christ suffered. The Bible means what it says. 
Note. From Hobb's Everlasting Life. 



215-232 

232-233 



CONTENTS. 



15 



CHAPTER XIII. page 

Texts and Arguments Commonly Used to Support the 
Traditional Domga. 

Reason to complain of the methods of our antagonists. 
Life and Existence. Unauthorized assumptions. Very- 
few texts available when fairly treated. Literal sense 
discarded. Examination of the principal texts. Daniel 
12: 1, 2, Matt. 25: 46 234-251 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Texts and Arguments Commonly Used to Support the 
Traditional Dogma (Continued). 

Mark 3: 28,29. Mark 9: 43-50. Luke 16: 19-31. The 
Prophetic parable of the rich man and Lazarus — fore- 
telling the reversed condition of the Jews and Gen- 
tiles. 252-267 

CHAPTER XV. 

Texts and Arguments Commonly Used to Support the 
Traditional Dogma (Continued). 

Rev. 14:11. Rev. 19: 3. Rev. 20: 9, 10, 20. The Beast, 
False Prophet and the Dragon. Barnes and Stuart 
cited. The general truth taught in the figures ought to 
be clear and evident. .... 268-282 

CHAPTER XVI. 

The Exodus of Sin and Death. 

The Divine economy dualistic. Two revelations; Two 
worlds; Two Adams; Two progenitors ; Two births; 
Two covenants; Two classes; Two kingdoms; Two ad- 
vents; Two Deaths; obscured and ignored by the 
popular philosophy. Good and Evil not always cotem- 
porary. Different ideas of Christ. His purpos-e. His 
power. Divine truth not all revealed at one time. The 
First and Last contrasted. The Apocalypse — Celestial 
Paradise. ...... 283-306 

Supplement. The Two Doctrines contrasted. . 307-311 

Index of Scriptures. .... 343-341 

Index of Authors. ..... 345-347 



INTRODUCTION". 



Dear Mr. Pettingell : 

I feel greatly honored by your request that 
I should send you a few lines of sympathy in the 
way of preface to your new volume. The time will 
come, if the world lasts long enough, when you will 
be recompensed for your steadfastness in maintain- 
ing the truth on Life Eternal through the 
Divine Incarnation, by the gratitude of American 
Christians. At the present moment, they have some- 
what discredited you for " heresy" ; but this is the 
name given to every divine verity, before it has 
received the imprimatur of the leaders of orthodoxy. 
There is not a doctrinal truth now dear to Protest- 
ants which has not been burned alive in this fire in 
the early days of its testimony. But out of the fire 
the Lord has delivered all the truths vindicated at 
the Reformation. 

The truth for which, during so many years, we 
have labored together, will similarly triumph. This 
I firmly maintain, because our conclusions are founded 
upon the application of the orthodox principle of in- 

17 



18 INTRODUCTIOX. 

terpretation to Holy Scripture. Protestants learn 
tlieir creed in every particular except one, by apply- 
ing to the Scripture the common sense rule of taking 
the plain and obvious sense of the main current of 
Biblical expressions as the riding sense. The one 
exception is in all that relates to man's nature 
and destiny. From first to last, the Protestant 
Churches, imitating the Romish Church, have per- 
sisted in applying to Scripture, on this matter, a non- 
natural or figurative law of exegesis. Man is thus 
declared by theology to be an immortal being, and 
then, all that the Bible says on the mode of his gain- 
ing Eternal Life, and on the punishment of those who 
reject God's redeeming mercy, is tortured into un- 
natural senses. 

This perverseness cannot hold out long against 
steady protest and brotherly rebuke. Already a 
vast multitude of the ablest and most Christian minds 
are in full revolt against such perversion, and their 
numbers are increasing daily in all directions. In 
England, the revolt is strong enough to compel the 
toleration of the undersigned, in the open profession 
of the faith of life in Christ in the principal post of 
London Independency, for the past year,* a post of 
which I was not indeed worthy, but which has given 

* Chairmanship of the London Association of Congregational 
Ministers, embracing nearly one hundred members. — J. H. P. ■ 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

me an opportunity of proving that we are heartily 
one with our brethren, in all other matters pertain- 
ing to Evangelical Religion. Not a voice has been 
raised in opposition to this appointment, and it is 
idle to regard the circumstance in any other light 
than as evidence of the public sense of the fact, that 
this doctrine on Immortality has, at least, a prima 
facie case in interpretation, and ought no longer to 
be regarded as a " heresy" deserving of disgrace or 
excommunication. 

The same may be said of the still more striking 
concession of the London Missionary Society in con- 
ferring on the same person the honor of moving the 
adoption of their Report, last May, at Exeter Hall, — 
again without a breath of opposition. I mention 
these facts to prove to the American Churches what 
is the state of public opinion here. It is making a 
decided movement towards open and avowed tolera- 
tion of what some of us consider the central idea of 
Revelation — the center whence radiates all the great 
gospel doctrines of Justification, Sanctification, Re- 
demption and Resurrection, the Deity and Atonement 
of Christ, and the work of the Holy Spirit, and lastly, 
the doctrine of Retribution. 

Similarly in India, these ideas are widely ex- 
tended among the most devoted missionaries. I have 
myself superintended a mission in Calcutta during 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

the last five years, carried forward by my friend the 
Rev. Wra. A. Hobbs, a man of indefatigable activity, 
a fine Bengalee scholar, and a Christian, whose self- 
devotion has won the affection of the whole mission- 
ary body in Bengal. Not a word of " forbidding " 
him has reached our ears. Not a syllable of discour- 
agement, such as we hear of as so frequently proceed- 
ing from your religious journals and eminent church 
authorities in disparagement of your orthodoxy. 

I could fill pages of your book with the record of 
the many centers, where the doctrine of Life in 
Christ has rooted itself. In France and Switzerland, 
not a few of the very foremost Professors and Pastors 
in Paris, Lyons, Marseilles, Montaubon, Bale and 
Geneva are its devoted supporters. In Germany, 
Dr. Gess, of Breslau (the former of Dr. Godet's 
mind), has taught it openly to his students for nearly 
twenty years. Dr. Dorner speaks of it with respect in 
the recent fourth volume of his System of Christian 
Doctrine, In Italy it is making way daily. Every- 
where, indeed, the sectarian Church-rulers excom- 
municate devoted laborers, like Cocorda of La 
Tour and Byse of Brussels, for teaching it. But 
everywhere it speeds. So is it in China and Japan. 

In our own Universities, specially at Cambridge, 
the avowed adherents are among the foremost and 
most trusted authorities in these places : Professor 



INTRODUCTION. 



21 



Stokes, Professor Adams (the discoverer of Neptune), 
Canon Jamieson, the Head of Christ's College, and 
several others. Close at home, indeed, the Bankers 
and the Ladies are, in some cases, ruthless upholders 
of the notion of endless torments of the already- 
miserable London poor. The Bankers threaten to 
withdraw their subscriptions of hundreds of pounds 
from the Church Missionary Society, the London City 
Mission, and the Evangelization Society, if they tolerate 
agents holding our faith on immortality in Christ. 
The London City 31ission lately had to part with 
four of the best members of their Committee because 
so many hundred pounds were at stake ! Another 
member of the same banking firm in Lombard Street 
will not tolerate in the Baptist Mission any defection 
from the faith in endless misery for all the heathen. 
But spite of every opposition the truth spreads, and 
missionaries are found to give up their posts rather 
than continue to teach the millions of India and 
China the pernicious fables of Xavier and Loyola. 

In one word, the truth is proving its character 
by the spiritual quality of the men who embrace it. 
Time-servers " decline to say what they think," or 
boldly affirm that Christianity has " left unsettled all 
the chief questions respecting the nature of man and 
the nature of God." But this last is impossible. If 
the Bible is written in metaphors throughout, what 



22 



INTRODUCTION. 



is the value of such a Revelation ? And why do your 
learned American writers, so earnest in supporting 
the idea of endless torments, systematically avoid 
grappling with the positive argument for Life in 
Christ, as set forth by its principal defenders ? Let 
them, at least, give the indication of sincerity try 
answering in detail, if they think you err, the con- 
tents of your forthcoming publication. 

Meantime, I steadfastly maintain, after forty years 
of study of the matter, that it is the notion of the in- 
fliction of a torment in body and soul that shall be 
absolutely endless, which alone gives a foot of stand- 
ing ground to Ingersoll in America, or Bradlaugh in 
England. I believe more firmly than ever that it is 
a doctrine as contrary to every line of the Bible as it 
is contrary to every moral instinct of humanity. 

God grant that soon a " great company " of your 
presbyters may " become obedient to the faith." 
I am, dear Mr. Pettingell, 
Yours sincerely, 

Edwaed White. 

London, Nov., 1883. 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



PART THE FIRST, 



The Question of Human Immortality considered in 
the Light of History, Reason and Philosophy. 

There are some of us, and to this class I myself "belong, who 
have taken a definite position. We have reached the conclusion 
that Eternal Life is the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ: and this life 
is not given to those who reject the Gospel, but given in the new 
birth to those who believe, and who are thereby made partakers of the 
divine nature. "We warn men that while they continue in impeni- 
tence they fail to secure it: and if they continue impenitent to the 
end, they are destined to indignation and wrath, tribulation and 
anguish;. . . . that their punishment will not regenerate, but destroy 
them; that in the fires to which they are destined, they will not 
be purified, but consumed, and that from the second death there is no 
resurrection. I cannot tell to what extent these modifications of 
the earlier doctrine have affected the convictions of Congregational 
ministers and churches. The change, if there has been change, has 
been almost a silent one. I believe that very few ministers have 
declared that they have abandoned the older doctrine. I believe in 
those cases in which it has been explicitly and emphatically aban- 
doned, and the theory of Life in Christ earnestly and emphatically 
maintained, churches and congregations have accepted the transi- 
tion without much surprise, and without any protest. This, at 
least, has been true, in my own case; and I wish, with the greatest 
possible emphasis, to state that, in my own experience, the recep- 
tion of this doctrine has not only not enfeebled my belief in the 
great doctrines of the evangelical faith, and especially in the doc- 
trines of Incarnation, the Atonement, and Regeneration, but has 
given to all those doctrines a firmer hold on my intellect, my con- 
science and my heart." — R. "W. Dale, d.d., of Birmingham, to the 
Congregational Union of England and Wales, 1874, 



CHAPTER I. 



In Limine. The Natube axd Limitations of the 
Question. 

Before entering upon the discussion of the question 
in hand, it is important for us carefully to consider what 
the question really is. This has been rendered the more 
important by the treatment it has received, both from 
its friends and foes. The former have too often asso- 
ciated it with various other questions quite irrelevant or 
inconsequential, and have so advocated them, and given 
them such prominence as greatly to obscure and preju- 
dice the main question. The latter have always been 
more willing to discuss the minor issues than the main 
question. Indeed, they have almost uniformly so mis- 
stated it and misrepresented it, as to contuse the minds 
of honest inquirers, and to deter them from any fair 
consideration of it. 

The reader should understand in the outset, and 
bear in mind :— 

I. That it is not a question of human immortality 
or non-immortality, as a fact, as argued by Christians on 
the one hand, and opposed by infidels on the other, that 
we are about to discuss. We fully believe in the pos- 
sible, yea actual immortality of man, whensoever he shall 
be fit to enjoy the boon. We believe it was God's 
original purpose to give immortality to man, and that 
he might have been exempt from death had he never 
sinned, and that it is still His purpose to immortalize 
him, — but not in sin and misery, — but only by a restora- 
tion to holiness. 

2 25 



3 



26 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



We hope for immortality as confidently as our 
opposers, and we advocate the doctrine more earnestly 
than they, if possible. But we differ from them in the 
grounds of our hope. We advocate it as a Christian 
doctrine : they as a doctrine of philosophy : they claim 
it from Adam by their natural birth : we from Christ, 
only by a new spiritual birth, and a resurrection from the 
dead : they believe it to be the natural endowment of 
every man : we believe it to be a supernatural endow- 
ment — yea, a gift of God's grace, through redemption by 
Christ. 

We do not argue it as a doctrine of universalism, as 
they do ; but as a special gift of grace to those who are 
saved, and to them only. 

Among the many passages of Scripture in which our 
thesis is plainly enunciated, we need now to quote only 
the following simple text, which sets it forth, both posi- 
tively and negatively, so clearly and in such categorical 
terms, that it would seem to be impossible for any one 
who accepts the testimony of Holy Writ to gainsay or 
resist its force. 

" He that believeth not God, hath made him a liar : 
because he hath not believed in the witness that God 
hath borne concerning His Son. And the witness is 
this, that God gave unto us Eternal Life, and this 
Life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath the 
Life; he that hath not the Son hath NOT the Life.' 5 
(1 John v, 10-12, Revised Version.) 

II. It is not concerning the nature and destiny of the 
soul of man, that we are to inquire ; but concerning the 

MAX HIMSELF. 

There are various speculative theories of the nature of 
man. We have considered some of them in our larger 
volume, " The Life Everlasting" We cannot discuss them 



Chap. L] 



IX LIMINE. 



27 



in this smaller one, nor is it important, for we do not 
rest our argument on any one of them. 

Of what the soul of man consists, pure science can tell 
us nothing. Indeed, science cannot tell us whether man 
has any soul as an entity distinct from the body. Xor 
does Scripture give us any warrant for dogmatizing as to 
its independent nature, and asserting positively, as many 
do, that it can consciously exist, and exercise all the 
functions of an active, conscious personality, apart from 
the body. Without dogmatizing on a subject which 
grows more and more difficult the more it is examined, 
and in regard to which the wisest are the most diffident, 
we are free to confess that we have never been able to 
find any good evidence from Scripture — certainly not 
from science, to believe that man can exist as an intelli- 
gent, sensitive, responsible person, in a disorganized con- 
dition ; or, in other words, that he can be dead and alive 
at the same time, as is commonly believed to be his ab- 
normal condition between death and the resurrection. 
But, be that as it may, it is the ultimate state of man 
that especially concerns us now. 

The extensive prevalence of the Platonic philosojDhy, 
which attributes to man an indestructible soul independ- 
ent of the body — which is at best but a speculation — has 
put a new meaning into the word soul^ which is quite 
different from the sense in which it is employed in the 
Scriptures— as we will show — and has introduced into 
our theological teaching, and into our literature generally, 
new forms of expression when treating of the destiny of 
man, not to be found in the Word of God, such as " the 
immortal soul," " the ever-living soul," " the never-dying 
soul." etc. ; and our dictionaries have incorporated this 
deathless nature of the soul into the very definition of 
the word, as its distinguishing characteristic. This is 



28 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



actually a pre- judgment of the -whole question. At least, 
it misleads and confuses the minds of inquirers who 
would know what is the true doctrine of the Scriptures 
concerning the destiny of man. It sets them to disput- 
ing about the soul of man, when the real question which 
the Scriptures set before us is concerning the whole man, 
body and soul in one ; man, not in any transitional state, 
but as reconstituted in the resurrection. 

We need not stop to inquire what is the condition of 
man immediately after death, concerning which the 
• Scriptures give us very little light. Our chief inquiry is 
concerning the man that now is, to whom the Word of 
God is addressed : the man whom God created and 
placed under law ; the man who sinned and forfeited 
the life — all the life — that was given him; the man to 
whom God said, " Thou shalt surely die" ; the man who 
was redeemed by the death of the Son of God ; the 
man to whom the unspeakable gift of Eternal Life is 
again offered in the Gospel, and who is exhorted to lay 
hold of it ; the man who will be raised and judged ac- 
cording to the deeds done in the body — What will 
become of him? The righteous, with new spiritual 
bodies like unto Christ's glorious body will then enter 
upon a new life, a life of joy and blessedness that shall 
never end — this, no one can doubt — and the wicked — who, 
according to the Word of God, shall then' " be punished 
with everlasting destruction " — shall they too enter upon 
a life — a life of misery that shall never end ? or shall 
they perish, soul and body together, in the Second Death, 
from which there is no resurrection ? 

III. It is not the Future Punishment of the wicked, 
nor even the Future Beicards of the righteous, that is 
the special subject of our inquiry; but The Gift of God, 
which is Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 



Chap. I.] 



IN LIMINE. 



29 



That the wicked are punished, and punished according to 
their ill desert, after death for the sins they commit 
in this life ; and that the righteous are rewarded for all 
their good deeds, is too clearly revealed in the Scriptures 
to admit of any question by those who accept their testi- 
mony. But it is a great mistake, which too many make, 
and a fruitful source of error, on the subject of our in- 
quiry, to suppose that the death which is the common 
lot of all men since the fall, is that punishment, or that 
the Eternal Life, which is a gift of grace, is the reward of 
the righteous. No man, however free he may be from 
personal sins, can hope for exemption from this death ; 
nor can any one, however full he may be of good works, 
establish any claim to this Life Eternal, on the score of 
merit. The punishment which is due to the sinner for 
his own sins, and the death which he dies as a mortal 
man, are two distinct things, and they should never be 
confounded with each other, as they commonly are 
in the popular mind. The same distinction is to be ob- 
served between the rewards of the righteous, and the 
unspeakable gift of God — the Eternal Life— which is the 
subject of our inquiry. 

The Scriptures assure us that, " As in Adam all die, so 
in Christ shall all be made alive." " It is appointed unto 
men — all men — once to die, but after this the judg- 
ment." Had it not been for God's purpose of grace and 
mercy, made known in the Gospel, this death would 
have been the final end of all men. But the Gospel reveals 
to us a resurrection from the dead, and another life — a 
Second life, — which is pure, spiritual and eternal, for all 
who shall be fitted to enjoy it ; and a Second death, from 
which there is no resurrection, for all who have no fitness 
for this immortal life. 

Now this is the Life which is freely offered to all men 



30 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



in the Gospel, without money, and without price — the 
Life which we are exhorted to seek, to lay hold of, to re- 
ceive as the gift of God through Jesus Christ ; and hav- 
ing received it, the way is open for us to lay up our 
treasures in heaven, and to accumulate merit as abund- 
antly as we please. We are assured that there shall be 
distinctions, according to merit, in the recompense of the 
righteous, and that not one good deed, even to the giving 
of a cup of cold water to a disciple for the sake of Christ, 
shall fail of its full reward. 

The " Second death " is the death we are warned 
against, and urged to escape, while we may. Though 
the First death may not be avoided, the Second, 
which shall issue in utter destruction, may be. What 
various degrees of punishment shall be meted out to the 
unsaved by the hand of justice ? How many shall fall 
under this dreadful doom of the Second death ? What 
the number of stripes that shall be inflicted upon " those 
who have sinned without law, and shall perish without 
law?" Plow many and how heavy the stripes which they 
shall deserve who have sinned against both the law and 
the Gospel, and have rejected and despised an offered 
Savior, and what shall be their disappointment, their 
rage, their anguish of spirit, and their torment, and how 
long all this shall endure, before the fires of Gehenna shall 
utterly consume them, and the universe shall be rid of 
their presence — we forbear even to guess. Nor need we 
now inquire, for this is not our theme. It is just the 
opposite of all this, — The Unspeakable Gift of God. 

This gloomy side has its fit place for consideration, but 
it now comes only incidentally into view as the back- 
ground of the glorious picture we are considering. 

Entertaining large views of the saving power of Him 
w r ho " so loved the world that He gave His only begotten 



Chap. I.] 



IX LIMINE. 



31 



Son, that whosoever believeth on Him might not perish, 
but have Everlasting Life," we would gladly hope, if we 
could, for the salvation of all the children of Adam. But 
bowing reverently, as Ave do, to the teaching of His 
Word, we cannot entertain any such hope. Alas ! that 
Word assures us that, at the last day, " many 55 will be 
adjudged to be fit only for destruction ; that the good 
wheat only will be gathered into the garner, and that the 
chaff will be " burned up with unquenchable fire" ; "And 
then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the 
kingdom of their Father," — a kingdom which is not only 
everlasting, but co-extensive with the universe. 

The notion of two everlasting: kingdoms, running 
parallel with each other, the one, a kingdom of purity 
and blessedness ; the other, a kingdom of sin and sorrow ; 
the one, to resound with the praises and joyful songs of 
redeemed men and angels ; and the other, with the 
groans and blasphemies of lost sinners and devils to all 
eternity, is not a doctrine of the Bible, it is a relic of 
Persian dualism and pagan superstition. It came into the 
Christian church in the latter part of the second century, 
with that other pagan doctrine of which it is the legitimate 
fruit — the natural and necessary immortality of sinners. 
It was incorporated into her creed by the philosophic 
schoolmen of the dark ages, and has been handed down to 
us through the medium of an apostate Church ; but is re- 
garded by many, even to this day, as a part of the faith 
once delivered to the saints. It is full time that it were 
relegated to its source, and that those w T ho call themselves 
Christians returned to the simple faith of the Gospel, as 
taught by the Master Himself, and His apostles. 

Though the rewards and punishments that are set 
before us in this Gospel as necessary stimulants to action 
in our earthly career are not to be ignored, it is time that 



32 THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



enlightened Christians, in this age of the world, should 
begin to have some higher conception of the Divine 
Economy, than that it exists merely for the purpose of 
administering rewards and penalties. As children under 
the nurture and tutelage of a kind parent often look only 
at the rewards that are promised to stimulate them to 
right action, and to the punishments that are threatened 
to deter them from wrong-doing, and think that if they 
gain the one and escape the other, nothing more is in- 
tended by their guardians, or to be desired by themselves; 
so under the discipline of our heavenly Father, we are 
too apt to regard the rewards He offers, and the penal- 
ties He threatens, as our highest motives for action, and 
that He exercises His rule over us merely for the purpose 
of administering them. It is true that rewards and pen- 
alties are a necessary part of any system of government 
over imperfect creatures ; but they belong to a lower and 
imperfect stage of discipline. When character is per- 
fected, and right habits are formed, and holy action 
becomes spontaneous, as will be the case when the object 
of our earthly training is fully accomplished, these con- 
straining motives will be no longer needed ; nor will they 
be thought of. We shall act automatically, as it were, 
doing that which is right, and pure, and lovely, and that 
only, from the instinctive promptings of a holy nature. 
It is for this perfected stage of being that our heavenly 
Father would fit us. He would lift us out of this animal, 
material, mortal condition, in which we begin our career, 
into that higher realm, which is purely spiritual, and 
make us fit — if we will consent to it — for companionship 
with the holy angels, and for union with Himself in love, 
and for the Life that is Everlasting. This is the end 
we should seek even now, and the end we shall 
seek, just so far as we go out of ourselves, and rise 



Chap. I.] 



IN LIMINE * 



33 



toward Him, the great object of our confidence and love. 
This is the end He will secure for all who will throw 
open their hearts to the influence of His grace, and per- 
mit Him to work His own good pleasure within them. 

But alas ! for those who turn away from Him, and 
close their ears to His call, and shut their hearts against 
the sweet influence of His Spirit — -who desire and seek 
after those things only that are earthly and perishing. 
There is no place for them in His Spiritual Everlasting 
Kingdom,— there can be none for them. They must 
perish in their own corruption. 

IV. We have no new translation of the Holy Scrip- 
tures to propose, nor do we desire to have a new mean- 
ing put upon any of the well-chosen terms of the original. 

It is true, we cannot but regard the translation of 
many passages as imperfectly done, and as failing to give 
the real force of the original, and we are hap|3y to see 
that not a few of them have been improved— and others 
might have been — in the " New Version.' 5 But the Old 
Version, as it was, is all that w r e need to establish the 
doctrine for which we contend, if its explicit and uniform 
testimony be accepted ; or rather, its explicit and uni- 
form testimony is the doctrine, and the only doctrine, on 
this question for which we contend. But no version or 
revision, however close it may be to the original, will 
serve to bring us any nearer to the truth if scholastic and 
speculative theologizers are to be allowed to twist and 
warp its plain utterances to suit their own theories. All 
that we desire is, that those who have been led away from 
the truth on this question, and involved in the mazes of 
eiTor by these insidious methods, should be brought back 
to the simple teaching of God's Word, as it lies every- 
where on the surface of its pages, and open to any sincere 
^ inquirer. 

2* 



34 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



•Here we take our stand. We must insist that those 
who would discuss with us this doctrine of Immortality 
shall be loyal to the Word of God, which is, and must be, 
our supreme authority on this question. Whatever light 
science or philosophy, in their advance, may throw upon 
this or any other subject, we gladly accept, not fearing 
that all truth, so far as it is rightly appreh ended, will be 
harmonious and self-consistent, and whatever progress 
may be made by repeated revisions, in the understanding 
of mysterious and ambiguous passages, of which there 
are not a few, we gratefully welcome. But if there be 
any one doctrine more than another which we are to take 
directly from the Word of God by reverently and honestly 
inquiring, "What saith the Scriptures?" it is this. 
Neither science, nor philosophy, nor sentiment is able to 
teach it to us. We hold it to be treason to the Scrip- 
tures, and to the God of the Scriptures, for one to 
reject their plainly-spoken, explicit testimony on this 
question, and attempt to read his own speculations, or 
the speculations of others, however learned they may be, 
into them, or to try to make them agree with his own 
preconceived notions, by putting a forced or unnatural 
construction upon their language. And yet, this is the 
grave charge that must be made — if the truth be told 
— against the philosophic Christianity of the schools ; 
and the only excuse that can be made is, that their phil- 
osophy requires it, and tradition has authorized it, and 
" the people love to have it so." 

V. We have no purpose or desire to attack or oppose 
the Evangelical system, usually called " Orthodoxy," but, 
on the contrary, it is our special desire to maintain it. 
We love and honor it ; and it is because of our fidelity 
to it that we are anxious to have it freed from this mon- 
strous error of immortality in sin and misery that has 



Chap, I.] 



IN LIMINE, 



35 



fastened upon its very roots, and thrown a blight and 
false coloring over all its doctrines, and is doing more 
than all its other enemies to bring it into contempt. If 
this great traditional error could be eradicated, so that 
the true Gospel doctrine of Life Eternal only in Christ, 
and its correlated doctrines might be permitted to stand 
forth in their primitive simplicity, and in their true light, 
there would be little room or occasion for the cavils of 
opposers and infidels. 

When we come to recognize our mortal condition as* 
the children of a sinful race, the necessity of a New Birth 
in order to a life that shall never end becomes apparent; 
the Divinity of that Savior, through whom alone this 
New Life is given, can no longer be questioned; the 
Salvation He offers, instead of being a problematical 
rescue from an incredible doom, which, though threatened, 
could never be inflicted by a God of justice and love, 
becomes a heavenly boon of priceless value to be earnestly 
sought for and thankfully accepted by perishing mortals ; 
and Redemption, instead of seeming to be an act of 
justice which every child of Adam has a right to demand 
at the hands of his Maker, as it must under the shadow 
of this error, becomes a pure act of grace ; and Christ, the 
Eternal Son of God, is exalted to his true place in the 
scheme of our Salvation, and entitled to the highest 
gratitude and love of the world as the only Savior (or Life 
Giver, Syriac Version) of men. The great doctrines of the 
Second Advent, the Resurrection of the dead, the General 
Judgment, and The Life Everlasting, which stand out 
so conspicuously in the Gospels and in the Epistles, and 
upon which the early disciples fixed ail their hopes for 
the future, but which, alas ! under the blighting influence 
of this error, have lost their true place in the creed of the 
Church, and in the preaching of its ministers, and have 



36 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



come to be shadowy myths, will again, in the light of 
this truth, be invested with all their primitive power, as 
verities close at hand. 

We cannot stop to discuss these correlated doctrines, 
and to reset them in their appropriate places in this 
evangelical system of theology, nor need we, for if we 
can but brush away the clouds which this false dogma of 
paganism has thrown around them, and bring out again 
from its eclipse the one doctrine of Life and Immortality, 
as it is brought to light in the Gospel, this whole system 
will need no defence. To this end will our efforts be 
directed in this volume. 



CHAPTER II. 

Deathless Nature of Man — Origin and History 
of the Dogma. 

To speculate on the origin of the doctrine of the 
deathless nature of man, would seem, to those who ad- 
mit the truth of the Mosaic narrative in the third chap- 
ter of Genesis, quite unnecessary; for Moses there tells 
us that the notion, " Ye shall not surely die ; ye shall 
be as gods, who live forever, knowing good and evil," 
was first whispered into the ears of Eve in Paradise, as 
it has been into the minds of her children in all ages. 
But as there are many who will not accept this as a true 
record, — especially so far as their favorite doctrine is 
concerned, — we reserve the discussion of this record 
till we come to our Biblical argument, and begin with 
the remark, to which all will assent : That it is a very an- 
cient belief. If, however, this record of Moses be not 
accepted as a true account of its origin, we may well 
despair of tracing it to its source. 

It is a very plausible doctrine, as is evident from the 
readiness with which it has been received in all parts 
of the world, and from the ease with which it has in- 
sinuated itself into the literature and theology of all 
ages and all peoples. 

It is certainly a very popular doctrine, as all who have 
attempted to call it in question can testify. Indeed, it 
could not be otherwise than popular, wherever it has 
been received. There is something so flattering to the 
pride of man, in the idea of possessing a godlike nature, 

37 



38 



THE UXSPE ARABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



that is absolutely indestructible, something so responsive 
to the instincts and cravings of his soul, — sentiments im- 
planted within him by his Creator as a motive to perse- 
verance in the way of holiness, and which sin itself, — 
though fatal to his hopes, — cannot eradicate, and which 
still linger there, after he has forfeited the boon, to 
urge him to seek for its recovery, to which the mercy of 
God encourages him ; there is something so dismal in 
the thought of death and extinction that it is not to be 
wondered at that man, sinful and mortal though he may 
be, should still cling to this hope as he clings to his life, 
and should fain try to believe, however dark his pros- 
pect, that he shall never die. It is a very delusive doc- 
trine, as will be evident when we come to consider its 
influence on the theodicy of the Christian Church. 

This hope, under various forms, and mixed with many 
fanciful notions, entered into the religions of the most 
ancient nations. We find traces of it among the Chal- 
deans, the Persians, and the Egyptians. Socrates, four 
hundred years before Christ, argued it from the nature 
of man, and the instincts of the human soul ; and Plato, 
his pupil, one of the greatest philosophers the world 
ever saw, and whose speculations have had more influ- 
ence over the religious opinions of mankind, than any 
other philosopher, and, we may say, than all other phi- 
losophers combined, formulated it into definite propo- 
sitions, and incorporated them into his system. He 
held that man has actually two souls, an animal and a 
spiritual soul. Though the animal soul is perishable, the 
spiritual soul is imperishable. But to give a logical con- 
sistency to this doctrine, he taught that it is not only 
immortal, a parte post, but eternal, a parte ante : that it 
never had a creator ; and therefore having had no begin- 
ning it can never have an end. 



Chap. II.] DEATHLESS NATURE OF MAN". 



39 



The idea of the natural immortality of man found no 
place among the Hebrews, under Moses and the earlier 
prophets. They were kept separate and secluded from 
the surrounding pagan nations, to prevent them from 
imbibing their false and corrupting notions. It was not 
until after their long captivity, nor indeed until after 
Plato's philosophy had come to prevail throughout the 
Grecian world, and the Hebrew people were brought 
into association with its disciples, that their Rabbinical 
teachers and Pharisaical doctors began to entertain 
these philosophical speculations. But there is not one 
single hint of any such doctrine in all the Old Testa- 
ment Scriptures, — there are indeed, intimations, more 
or less distinct, of a resurrection from the dead, and of 
the destruction of the wicked, in what is more plainly 
revealed in the New, as a second deaths and, indeed, 
assurances to the righteous, that they would be re- 
deemed from the power of the grave, and that " length 
of days forever and ever " would be given them ; but 
not one hint can be found in all these Divine Oracles 
that immortality would be the portion of all men. We 
boldly challenge our opponents to produce one such 
passage. It is only in the Talmud and commentaries 
of the Rabbins by which the people were taught how 
to explain the Scriptures, — or rather, to explain them 
away, as people now are, by the same means, — and 
how to "make the Word of God of none effect," as 
Christ said, that we find any such notions among them. 

So when Christ came, we find the Pharisees, who, as 
a sect, had become largely Platonized, rejecting scorn- 
fully the idea of their need of a Saviour to give them 
Eternal Life, while the Sadducees, at the other extreme, 
— for one extreme always induces its opposite, — denied 
the existence of any life whatever beyond the present. 



40 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



But our Lord, standing between them both, and taking 
part with neither, proclaimed everywhere, and with 
wonderful emphasis, and constant reiteration, that there 
could be no life beyond death but by a resurrection 
from the dead, and no Eternal Life but through Himself 
as the Giver of it. "I am the Resurrection and the 
Life.' 3 " He that believeth on the Son hath Everlasting- 
Life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see 
Life." This is the special theme of the Gospel of John, 
as it is also of his epistles, — Life and Immortality only 
through Christ, — by a new birth and a resurrection from 
the dead. " This is the record, that God hath given 
unto us Eternal Life, and this life is in His Son ; he that 
hath the Son hath the Life, and he that hath not the 
Son of God hath not the Life." It stands out conspic- 
uously in the writings of all His other immediate disci- 
ples. This is u the inheritance, incorruptible and unde- 
filed, that fadeth not away," of which Peter speaks, and 
the " unspeakable gift," for which Paul thanked God, 
and which he urges his brethren so earnestly to " lay 
hold of." This is the " faith once delivered to the 
saints," and the source of their strength and joy amid 
all their trials and persecutions, and their " confidence " 
even in dying, which they are exhorted to " hold fast to 
the end," and which they all did hold fast, till the sim- 
plicity of their faith was corrupted by the incoming of 
that same philosophical delusion that had corrupted the 
faith of the Hebrews before the coming of Christ, — yea, 
that corrupted the faith of the first pair in Eden. "I 
fear," says Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, "lest by 
any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his 
subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the 
simplicity that is in Christ." " Beware lest any man 
spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the 



Chap. II.] DEATHLESS NATURE OF MAN. 



41 



traditions of men, after the rudiments of this world and 
not after Christ," 

The early fathers of the Church, without exception, 
held and taught the same doctrine respecting the perish- 
able nature of man, and his need of a Saviour in order 
to reach Eternal Life, and used the very same language 
which Christ and His Apostles used. 

Barnabas, the companion of Paul ; Clement L, also 
one of Paul's fellow-laborers, and, as is supposed, bishop 
of Rome ; Hermas, whose name is mentioned in the 
epistle to the Romans; Ignatius, who was consecrated 
bishop of Antioch, probably by Peter, in a. d. 67, and 
who, forty years afterward, suffered martyrdom in the 
Amphitheater; Polycarp, a disciple of John, and 
bishop of Smyrna, who in extreme old age, in the year 
160, was burned at the stake Theophiltjs, another 
bishop of Smyrna, in the latter part of the second cen- 
tury ; Irenjsus, a pupil of Polycarp, who also died a 
martyr in the early part of the third century ; and still 
later, Arnobius and Lactantius, and many others, 
whose names might be mentioned, all held and publicly 
taught this same Christian doctrine of Immortality, only 
through redemption by Christ, the Son of God, and a 
resurrection from the dead at His second coming, and 
the literal destruction of the wicked, in the second 
death, as is abundantly evident from such fragments of 
their writings as have been preserved, and from the 
testimony of their cotemporaries. 

* The document entitled Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, re- 
cently brought to light by Bishop Bryennios, which was evi- 
dently written during the lifetime of Polycarp, emphatically 
and unmistakably sets forth the same doctrine, and no other, — 
the way of Life (mia les zoes), and the way of Death 
• {kai mia ton thanatou), as did all these other apostolic fathers 
before the faith of the Church had been corrupted by the Pla- 
tonic philosophy. 



42 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I 



Justix also, an eminent Grecian scholar near the 
close of the second century, certainly teaches the same 
doctrine in some of his writings, but having been a be- 
liever and teacher of Plato's philosophy before his con- 
version, and coming into the Christian Church at a time 
when its primitive faith had already begun to feel the 
corrupting influence of this philosophy, which was so 
popular in the outside world, and bringing with him 
some of his old views and former habits of thinking and 
expressing himself, his writings do not appear to be 
always and uniformly consistent with either system of 
doctrine. Hence he is quoted and claimed on both sides 
of this question of the natural immortality of man. After 
him, in the progress of Christianity toward that suprem- 
acy wdiich it soon achieved, other adherents of the same 
school, who unmistakably held to the doctrines of their 
Grecian master, were swept into the Church, and in- 
stalled as her teachers in theology. Among these were 
Athenagoras, another Grecian scholar in the closing 
years of the second century, and Tatian and Cyprian, 
in the early part of the third, — both African bishops, bit- 
ter and bigoted in their spirit, — ffippolytus, of the port 
of Rome, and Origen, the most accomplished scholar of 
the age, but a man of ascetic disposition, and of a spec- 
ulative mind; after him came Aihanasius, Jerome and 
Ambrose, in the fourth century, and in the fifth, more 
eminent than them all, the great Augustine, another 
African bishop, to whom we may accredit the honor, 
such as it is, of having formulated this dogma, of the 
inherent immortality of the soul, into the Christian sys- 
tem, and established it as one of the corner-stones of the 
so-called "orthodox" theology, — a system still perpet- 
uated and known as the Augustinian system.* 

* See note at the end of this chapter. 



Chap. II.] DEATHLESS NATURE OF MAN. 



43 



These theological teachers, in seeking to reconcile the 
dogmas of their Grecian masters with the simple doc- 
trines of Christ, were quite too willing to subordinate 
divine truth to human speculations. It is true, as Chris- 
tian believers, they gave up or kept in abeyance that 
part of their heathen master's teaching that attributed 
to man an eternal existence, a parte ante ; but they 
continued to hold, with him, to man's eternal existence 
a parte post. In this, however, they and their modern 
followers are less consistent than their leader, for the 
one cannot stand without the other. Both postulates 
belong together ; the latter has no logical force without 
the former to justify and sustain it. 

With their new teaching, new forms of expression, 
unknown to the Scriptures, came into use, and new 
meanings were put upon those forms that are common 
to the Scriptures. Instead of discoursing upon the sal- 
vation or loss of man as an integer, as did Christ and 
His immediate followers, they now begin to discourse 
concerning the soul of man, in contradistinction from 
his body, and to give quite another meaning to the word 
{psudie) " soul." It is now called " the immortal soul," 
" that principle in man that never dies, — that is inde- 
structible," and the like expressions for which there is 
no warrant, whatever, in the Word of God, but which 
belong only to that philosophy concerning the nature of 
man, that they would read into it. 

To bring the Scriptures into agreement with this 
heathen philosophy, a new meaning must be given to 
such words as " life," " death," " salvation," " destruc- 
tion," etc., whenever the destiny of man is spoken of, 
which is to be considered the religious or Scriptural 
sense of these words. This insidious practice of dis- 
carding the literal meaning of these plain Scriptural 



44 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part L 



terms, and taking them in a figurative, unnatural sense, 
whenever the destiny of man is referred to, has been 
handed down, with the philosophy that requires it, to 
the present time. It has entered so thoroughly into all 
our religious, teaching, and has been so wrought into 
all our religious literature, that it seems, to those who 
have been so instructed, to be the only proper thing to 
do. It is this more than anything else that has thrown 
this whole subject of the destiny of the saved and of 
the lost into such inexplicable confusion, that honest, un- 
lettered inquirers know not what to believe. No won- 
der that so many commentaries and expositions are 
needed to tell them in what sense to understand these 
simple Bible terms, that would otherwise be plain 
enough, and how to explain them into agreement with 
the popular philosophy of the day. 

These philosophical Christian teachers taught, as 
their successors still teach, that Christ could not be the 
actual source of Eternal Life to His people, as He Him- 
self declared, for immortality is the natural endowment 
of all men from Adam. The Eternal Life (the zbe 
aidnios) which He promised to give them must be a cer- 
tain blissful condition of life which the wicked cannot 
enjoy, and the death and destruction (thancttos kai 
apoleia) which are threatened to the wicked, cannot 
mean actual death and destruction, for the soul of man 
is deathless and indestructible, It must mean a kind of 
metaphorical death, a miserable condition of life that 
never ends. And even the fires of Gehenna, the inex- 
tinguishable fire (asbestos pur), the eternal fire of God, 
into which all His irreclaimable enemies shall at last be 
cast, to be consumed like the chaff of the threshing 
floor, is not a consuming fire, but it is a peculiar kind of 
fire {ignis sapiens), that only torments those who are 



Chap. II.] DEATHLESS NATURE OF MAN. 45 

cast into it, yea, that continually renews what it destroys 
that it may torment them forever. Such is the Biblical 
exegesis to which this heathen philosophy has given rise, 
and with which all who have been " orthodoxically " 
educated are familiar ! 

Origen, and others of the same school, devised another 
way of evading the direct testimony of Scripture relat- 
ing to the destiny of man, which, though equally false 
and delusive, was at least more creditable to their con- 
ception of the justice and mercy of God. Unable to 
accept of the awful conclusion to which their associates 
had come, with respect to the eternal misery of the un- 
saved, they conceived that the doom of death and ever- 
lasting destruction, which the Scriptures declare to be the 
end of all such, is to be taken neither in the literal sense, 
as the actual death and destruction of their persons, nor 
in the figurative sense of eternal misery, but in an ideal 
sense, denoting the death and destruction of their sins, 
and that having been in this way purified by the fires of 
Gehenna, they will at length be restored to the favor of 
God and to the enjoyment of Eternal Life with the 
righteous in heaven. Thus, by the subtle sophistry of 
these ingenious Christian philosophers, these simple, car- 
. dinal words of Scripture, that foretell the doom of the 
wicked, came to have these three senses as diverse as 
possible from each other, viz. : the literal, which they 
discarded, because it contradicted their dogma; the 
metaphorical, implying not the actual death and destruc- 
tion of sinners, as individuals, but only the death and 
destruction of their well-being, while they would them- 
selves live to sin and suffer forever ; and the ideal or 
sophistical, implying the death and destruction of their 
sins only, which, instead of harming them, would fit 
them for the never-ending enjoyment of heaven. So 



46 



TIIE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



that according to one view, to destroy man is to make 
him miserable forever ; and according to the other view 
it is to make him holy and happy forever, — and this in 
the teeth of our Lord's precise definition of what it is 
that will be destroyed, — neither his happiness nor his 
sinfulness, but the man himself. According to the one 
theory, the familiar passage in Matt. x. 28 should be ren- 
dered, " Fear not them which make the body miserable, 
but are not able to make the soul miserable ; but rather 
fear Him who is able to make them both miserable in 
hell forever." According to the other it should be ren- 
dered, "Fear not them which make the body holy, but 
are not able to make the soul holy ; but rather fear Him 
who is able to make them both holy in hell." 

The adherents of this third school of theologizers 
have never been the majority, though under such vari- 
ous designations as Origenists, Restorationists, Univer- 
salists, Advocates of the larger hope, etc., there have 
always been speculators of this sort, wherever religious 
opinions have been freely exercised ; and perhaps they 
are more numerous at the present time than ever before. 

But from the time of Augustine onward, through the 
long, dreary centuries of the dark ages, this other 
method of theologizing — called the Augustinian sys- 
tem of theology, from its leading representative — has 
had free course and been glorified, as the true doctrine 
of the Holy Catholic Church, and is, by inheritance, the 
orthodox doctrine of the Protestant world also. 

To give it the highest official sanction of the Church, 
and to fortify it against all opposition or doubt, the 
Lateran council, under Leo X., issued the following 
decree : 

" Whereas, some have dared to assert concerning the 
reasonable soul, that it is mortal y we, with the appro- 



Chap. II.] DEATHLESS NATURE OF MAX, 



47 



bation of the Sacred Council, do condemn and reprobate 
all who assert that the intellectual soul is mortal, seeing 
that the soul is not only truly, and of itself and essen- 
tially, the form of the human body, as it is expressed in 
the canon of Pope Clement V., but likewise immortal ; 
and we strictly prohibit all from dogmatizing otherwise ; 
and we decree that all who adhere to the like erroneous 
assertion shall be shunned and punished as heretics" 

The letter of this edict is no longer in force, to com- 
pel the faith of Protestant Christians, and yet the spirit 
that enacted it is not yet dead, and there are too many, 
alas, who would be glad to see its penalty put in execu- 
tion. But we are thankful to know that the age of big- 
otry, intolerance and heathen superstition, is fast passing 
away, and that under the enlightening influence of a free 
Bible, and freedom of thought, even in religious matters, 
the dogmas of an Anti-Christian philosophy, which so 
early were taken into the bosom of the Church of Christ, 
and have been supported by ecclesiastical bulls, and handed 
down by tradition, are undergoing a searching scrutiny. 
And this, the most popular, and yet the most delusive 
and Anti-Christian of them all, must soon yield the jDlace 
which it has so long usurped in the creed of the Church, 
to the truth as taught by Christ and His earlier disciples. 
Intelligent Christian inquirers are springing up on all 
sides, in all our evangelical Churches, with whom neither 
the edict of the Pope, nor the traditions of an aj)ostate 
Church, nor the speculations of Grecian philosophers, 
nor the bold assertion of the original author himself, will 
suffice to commend this dogma of the indefeasible im- 
mortality of fallen man, to their confidence, in face of* 
the clear, positive, and uniform declaration of God's 
Word to sinning man, — "Thou shalt surely die." 



48 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



Universal Immortality. 



THE THREE THEORIES OF IMMORTALITY. 

The following Table, taken from The Life Everlasting, exhib- 
its, in brief, the three schools of thought, on this question, 
among the Christian Fathers. I. That of Immortality only in 
Christ, as taught by Christ Himself and all the Apostolic Fath- 
ers. II. The Platonic School, holding to the natural immortal- 
ity of all souls, which took its rise near the close of the second 
century, which was divided, for a time, into two parties: 1. 
Those holding to the doctrine of the endless torment of the 
wicked. 2. Those believing in the final restoration of the wick- 
ed and the salvation of all men — of which two theories, the 
former, usually called the Augustinian, finally prevailed, and 
was declared to be the only 4 'orthodox doctrine' ' of the church. 

ad. Immortality 
died. only in christ. 

Our Lord. 
The Apostles. 
90 Barnabas. 
100 Clement of Rome. 
104 Her mas. 
107 Ignatius. 

C Anonymous — 
120 I Teaching of the 

( Twelve Apostles. 
100 Polycarp. 
lftt Justin? 
182 Theophilus. 
190 
200 

203 Irenseus. 
220 Clement, Alex. ? 

235 
23S 
253 
258 

300 Arnobius. 



Endless Tor- 
ment of THE 
Wicked. 

Athenagoras. 
Tatian. 



Tertullian. 
Hippolytus. 



Cyprian. 



325 
373 
392 
397 
400 
430 



Lactantius. 



Athanasius. 

Jerome. 
Ambrose. 

AUGUSTINE. 



Universal 
Restoration. 

Clement, Alex. ? 

Gregory, Thau. 
Origen. 
( Pierius. 
) Theognostus. 
< Pamphilus. 
Eusebius. 
Titus. 
Basil. 
Didymus. 
Gregory of Nyssa. 



CHAPTER III. 



Disastrous Influence of This False Dogma. 

The fathers of the Reformation, under Luther, did a 
noble work for the cause of Truth and Christianity, in 
protesting against the errors of the Church in which 
they had been reared, in setting the Word of God above 
all its traditions, and the decretals of its Anti-Christian 
Head, and in their heroic efforts to recall men to the 
simpler and purer faith of its early days. They searched 
out, and exposed many of the grosser errors and follies 
that scholastic sophistry, cunning priestcraft, and power- 
loving ecclesiasticism had engrafted upon it, during its 
long career of hypocrisy, bigotry and oppression. As 
God-fearing, and truth-loving men they did all that could 
reasonably be expected of men in their position. 

When we consider their training, their surroundings, 
the impediments that were thrown in their way, and 
their scant opportunities for investigation, we are aston- 
ished that they achieved so much, rather than that they 
left anything undone. Amid clouds and darkness, and 
with all the prejudices and false notions into which they 
had been educated, it is not to be supposed that they 
would be able, at one bound, to cast off all their shackles ; 
to come into the perfect light and liberty of the Gospel ; 
to see the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the 
truth, and to formulate it into a creed of such true pro- 
portions 3 as to require no further revision or amendment, 
at the hands of Christian scholars, through all coming 
time. 

3 49 



50 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



Some of them did have a suspicion, that this great 
philosophic dogma, of the natural immortality of man, 
was not in accordance with God's truth, and even Luther 
protested against the edict of the Pope that had been 
issued to enforce it.* But it lay too deep down under 
the accumulated rubbish of more than a thousand 
years ; — it had so entwined itself about their whole 
system of religion, and was so firmly embedded, and 
fixed in its very foundation, that it was quite impossible 
to expose and eradicate it at once. They had too much 
work on hand demanding their immediate attention, and 
were too heavily pressed on all sides, to admit of their 
accomplishing all we might desire, or even all they 
themselves desired. And so it was, that this great fun- 
damental error, — indeed the f on s et origo of most of the 
other errors of this corrupt Church, was taken over into 
the creed of the Churches of the Reformation, only to 
be exposed and eradicated — as it surely will be, by their 
successors in a freer and more enlightened age. 

There have been many Christian scholars since their 
day, who have questioned the Scriptural authority for 
this dogma, and many more, who would not, and could 
not, accept of the conclusions as to the endless misery 
of the unsaved, to which it leads ; and this number is 
rapidly increasing. And yet, it still lingers in the creeds 
and catechisms of most of our Churches. It is taught 
in our commentaries, and in our evangelical pulpits, and 
in our Sunday Schools, and in all our popular systems of 

*"I permit the Pope to establish articles of faith for his 
faithful followers; such as. the bread and wine are transmuted 
in the sacrament; the Divine essence is neither generative nor 
generated: the soul is the substantial form of the human body : 
and himself is ruler of the world and King of heaven and God 
of earth; and the soul is immortal, and all the numberless prod- 
igies of the Romish dunghills of decretals.*'— Lutuek. 



Chap. III.] INFLUENCE OF THIS FALSE DOGMA. 



51 



theology ; it pervades all our sacred and secular litera- 
ture — and, most of all, that which is anti-religious,— 
distorting, as it always has, and must, to a greater or 
less degree, all the doctrines of the Christian faith, 
bringing reproach upon the justice* of God, discrediting 
the work of Christ in our redemption, obscuring the 
glory of the Gospel, and greatly hindering its progress, 
and, in short, operating as a fruitful source of skepticism 
and infidelity, wherever it is insisted on as a fundamen- 
tal principle of the Christian religion. 

For it follows as a necessary corollary of this doctrine, 
that this once holy and happy universe, which God pro- 
nounced "very good" in the beginning, will never be 
restored to its original perfection ; that sin, bringing 
death and misery in its train, having once gained a lodg- 
ment here — whether with or without Divine permission, 
we need not now inquire — will never be exterminated, 
or expelled. It may, like a raging fire, be localized and 
circumscribed within certain limits, but it will never, 
like that fire exhaust itself and die out ; nor will it ever 
be extinguished by God Himself, but will rage on for- 
ever, not to devour and consume, but only to torment 
the miserable victims upon whom it is ceaselessly prey- 
ing ; and, so long as Jehovah lives and reigns, holiness 
and sin, happiness and misery, praises and curses, life 
and death will run parallel with each other, throughout 
all the cycles of a never-ending future. Heaven will 
resound with the songs of the redeemed, and hell, with 
the curses and groans of the damned, through all the 
eternal ages ; and the time will never, never come, when 
Infinite love, Divine wisdom and Almighty power will 
have so successfully triumphed over the works of the 
devil, as to have utterly destroyed them, nor over death 
and hell, as to have destroyed them; nor when the jus- 



52 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part L 



tice of God will have so vindicated itself, by the suffer- 
ings of the unsaved — whether they be many or few — 
as that they can be permitted to expire ; nor when the 
foundations of His government will be secure, and the 
loyalty of His holy, happy children assured, without this 
awful exhibition of His infinite wrath, rolling up like the 
smoke of a furnace, forever before their eyes.* 

But when men stop to consider what is involved in 
the idea, or rather in the fact of suffering that is abso- 
lutely endless ; what it is for conscious creatures like 
themselves, to writhe in the agonies of a second death, 
without dying forever and ever, and without the least 
possible hope of relief ; when they consider what count- 
less myriads of the human race — even with the most 
favorable construction of the words of Christ, concern- 
ing the number of the lost — must already have sunk 
into this abyss of woe, and what multitudes are daily 
following them there ; when they come to predicate this 
doom, not of sinners in the abstract, but of their own 
acquaintances and friends — it may be of their own 
children and bosom companions, who go out of life 
giving no evidence of piety, and perhaps, even rejecting 
the salvation offered in the Gospel, — they are appalled 
at the conclusion to which their creed and their logic 
lead them. Their faith cannot endure the strain put 
upon it. Something must give way. 

Holding to the doctrine of the endless conscious ex- 
istence of all men, beyond this life, as a doctrine of the 
Bible — for so they have been taught to believe — they 
begin, in their hearts, to charge God foolishly with ail 

* " Should this eternal torment of the unsaved cease, and 
this fire be extinguished, it would in a great measure, obscure 
the light of heaven, and put au eud to a great part of the hap- 
piness and glory of the blessed."— Hopkins' Works. Vol. II, 
pp. 437, 458. 



Chap. III.] INFLUENCE OF THIS FALSE DOGMA. 53 

the injustice and cruelty their false creed attributes to 
Him, or to doubt the testimony of His Word, as to the 
actual danger of coming short of salvation, and the 
necessity of striving to lay hold of the Eternal Life that 
is set before them in the Gospel, or to deny the God of 
the Bible, or to take refuge in some other form of belief 
or unbelief, or else — clinging to their faith in God and 
to the Scriptures as His Word, — they earnestly set 
themselves to find, and perhaps, think they do find, in 
these Oracles — in spite of their most positive declarations 
to the contrary — evidence enough to satisfy them, of the 
ultimate salvation of all men. 

Even those who cannot relieve their burdened minds, 
by doing such evident violence to the letter of God's 
Word, still hope, because they will and must, that possi- 
bly a post mortem probation, or some other way not yet 
revealed, may be found, of escape from the incredible 
doom of endless woe, which seems to be threatened 
against all who die in their sins. They do not dare to 
deny explicitly a doctrine that has been held by so many 
of the wise and good, who have gone before them, 
though they are unable to reconcile it with their own 
sense of justice. They may not, perhaps, be willing to 
admit, even to themselves, that they do not believe it, 
lest they should seem to be sliding away from the true 
foundation; but they cannot but hope that it may not be 
true. They accept it, if at all, under a kind of mental 
protest. It is that dark, mysterious doctrine, upon 
which they dare not trust themselves to think, lest they 
should have hard thoughts of God, whom they wish to 
love and trust, whom they do indeed love and trust as 
their Heavenly Father, amid all the clouds and darkness 
of their false theodicy ; but it is only as they include 
themselves, and all their dear friends, and all infants, 

I 



54 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



and imbeciles, and all in heathen lands, who have never 
heard of a Saviour, and all in Christian lands, who have 
" never had a fair chance " of salvation, among the num- 
ber of the saved ; and then, as for the rest — if there be 
any such — they comfort their hearts,, by saying, and 
wisely saying, with faithful Abraham, " Shall not the 
Judge of all the earth do right ? " 

In the rude and unfeeling ages of the past, when the 
severest penalties were inflicted for trivial offences, and 
when the chief object of punishment was torment, and 
the executioners of the law were called " tormentors " ; 
when human governments vied with each other in the 
severity of the tortures they inflicted upon the unhappy 
victims of their displeasure, and even the death penalty 
was made as cruel and protracted as possible, and medi- 
cal aid was invoked, to prolong the lives of those who 
suffered it, that still more enduring agonies might be 
inflicted upon them, while dying ; in those times — not 
so very long past, but now happily passed, never to re- 
turn—when Church officers exercised the function of 
inquisitors, under the pretence of doing the will of God, 
this doctrine of endless torment for the enemies of God, 
a doctrine so consonant with the spirit and practice of 
the age, might more easily find, and hold its place un- 
challenged in the creed of the Church. 

But in these " last days," under the softening influ- 
ences of the Gospel, when so much is done to assuage 
human sorrow and pain, and even animal suffering, and 
to relieve the distress of even the most ill-deserving; 
when mercy is mingled with justice, in the punishment 
of the most hardened of criminals, and capital punish- 
ment even, is made as humane and summary as possible, 
men cannot but ask, whether the majesty of the Divine 
government, — to which all human governments must 



Chap. III. J INFLUENCE OF THIS FALSE DOGMA. 



55 



look, both for their authority to punish, arid for an ex- 
ample of the manner and spirit in which it is to be 
administered, — can be vindicated only by the infliction 
of tortures too horrible to think of, and protracted 
without end? Is there no such thing as capital punish- 
ment, — the punishment of death, actual death — under 
the government of the Almighty Ruler? Is it to be 
supposed that He, who instituted this penalty of death, 
death without torture, and commanded it to be executed 
upon the guilty subjects of His theocratic government 
on earth, has no such penalty, in reserve, for rebels 
against the government of heaven ? Has He no alterna- 
tive, but to imprison the helpless victims of His dis- 
pleasure, and to pour out upon them the vials of His 
wrath without limit*, and without end ? Has He no way 
of putting an end to their miserable existence ? or does 
He choose to prolong their forfeited lives, that they may 
never cease to suffer? It surely cannot be for the 
benefit of these victims, who have no future to hope for. 
Is it then, for the benefit of the saved ? or is it to 
gratify the vindictive wrath of their Creator ? If not, 
what can be the object of the eternal suffering of these 
miserable, helpless creatures, who are supposed to be 
confined forever beyond the reach of mercy or hope ? 

And when we are told, as we surely are, in the theo- 
logical systems of our fathers, and of those who follow 
them, at the present day, that this is the doom, not only 
of rejectors of the Gospel, and irreclaimable offenders 
against light and knowledge, but of innumerable multi- 
tudes from heathen lands, who were born, as all of us 
were, under sin and condemnation, and who have never 
heard of a Saviour — of creatures, who owe both their 
existence, and the conditions of their existence, to the 
Sovereign Will of Him who foresaw, and j^edeter- 



56 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



mined all things from the beginning— Christian believers, 
if they have Christian hearts, cannot but feel, that there 
must be a flaw somewhere in the chain of reasoning, 
that leads to such monstrous conclusions, though they 
may not be able to detect it. 

What though the great and good divines of a former 
generation could school their severe and logical minds to 
accept all the terrible conclusions involved in the dogma 
of the deathless nature of man, which they had received 
by tradition from their fathers ; what though they could, 
in their zeal for the glory of God's justice, believe and 
teach to their docile hearers, that the perpetual spectacle 
of the agonies of the lost in hell, would serve to aug- 
ment the joys of the redeemed in heaven, and that, 
" should eternal punishment cease and the fire be extin- 
guished, it would put an end to a great part of the 
happiness and glory of the blessed." It is taxing too 
heavily the faith of the men of the present day, to 
insist on their believing doctrines, however hoary with 
age, or fortified by human authority, that are abhorrent, 
at once, to their reason and their moral sense. They 
will no longer be held to those views of God and His 
government, that prevailed, when all rulers were tyrants, 
and justice was but another name for vengeance, and 
punishment was synonymous with torture. They cannot 
be induced to love or worship a deity, who is represented 
to them as a monster of cruelty — more savage and 
vengeful than the bloodthirsty gods of the heathen 
world, nor to accept of a theodicy, that is at war with 
the spirit and precepts of the Gospel. They will not be 
terrified by threatenings they do not, and cannot believe 
will ever be executed, nor persuaded to flee from a 
danger they do not fear, nor betake themselves to a 
refuge of which they have ceased to feel the need. 



Chap. III.] INFLUENCE OF THIS FALSE DOGMA. 



57 



They cannot be aroused to seek for an immortality 
which, they have been made to believe, is already 
assured, nor to make any efforts to lay hold of that 
Eternal Lite, which they entered' upon when they were 
born. 

If the alternative to the great salvation that is set 
before men in the Gospel be, through misrepresentation, 
made incredible, the truth, which it ought to enforce, 
will soon lose its power to move them. If the " death," 
which God threatens, be not death, at all, but something 
else, so incredible that no thinking man can believe, nor 
ought to believe will be visited upon the impenitent, 
men will sin with greater boldness and in fancied se- 
curity. It was by changing the truth of God into a lie, 
that the great Arch-deceiver accomplished the ruin of 
our first parents, and today, the glorious Gospel, which 
is " the power of God unto salvation to every one that 
believeth, is made of none effect," through the same 
delusion. Men everywhere, in increasing numbers, are 
turning away their ears from the truth, mixed, as it is, 
with human conceits, and turned into a fable, under the 
influence of this great falsehood. They are forsaking 
the altars, at which their fathers worshiped, and betaking 
themselves to other forms of belief, or unbelief, that 
have, at least, the merit of not being incredible, however 
far they may be from " the faith once delivered to the 
saints." 

This is just the result we have to deplore, at the 
present time — the cause of which ought not to be a 
mystery. Everywhere, throughout Christendom, the 
people are casting off the restraints of religion, and 
forsaking the Sanctuary. Skepticism among all classes, 
especially among the young, is becoming very general. 
Even among those who professedly hold to what are 
3* 



58 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



called Evangelical doctrines, there is a skepticism, more 
or less latent, as to the final and irreversible doom of 
those who die in their sins, a kind of speculative, esoteric, 
half-doubting hope, of their ultimate salvation, by some 
plan of Divine mercy, not yet revealed, that greatly 
weakens the power of the truth. Earnest Christians are 
looking with anxiety and concern upon the indifferent- 
ism and irreligion of the present time, and are inquiring 
after the cause and the remedy. They ask : Why is it, 
as knowledge and the spirit of inquiry increase, and 
philanthropic efforts for the welfare of society are mul- 
tiplied, religious error and infidelity increase ? Why do 
not the masses frequent the house of God, and listen to 
the ordinary preaching of the Word, as they once did ? 
What will bring them back to the sanctuary and to the 
faith of their fathers? What modification in the ser- 
vices of God's house, and in the manner of presenting 
the truth, are needed to accomplish this end? They do 
well to inquire. These are questions of vital importance. 
But does it not occur to any of them, that their creed 
may require some modification ? that the evils they so 
much deplore may be due, quite as^much to the nature 
of the dogmas that are preached, as to the manner in 
which they are presented ? quite as much to the false 
light, in which the great Object of their worship is held 
up before them, as to the precise forms in which they 
are invited to worship Him ? 

Not that " the glorious Gospel of the blessed God " 
needs any modification; but is it not time to inquire 
whether all the human philosophy that is preached with 
it, is also from God, and a part of that Gospel? 
Whether all the errors, perversions, false interpretations, 
foolish conceits, and traditions, by which it was burdened 
in its transit through the dark ages, were fully exposed, 



Chap. III.] INFLUENCE OF THIS FALSE DOGMA. 



59 



and rejected in the Reformation, so that none of them 
remain, to weaken its power or dim its luster, or cheek 
its progress in these last days ? In short, whether there 
be not need of another reformation, to carry forward to 
a higher stag^e, the work which the Reformers of the 
sixteenth century began, and to do it more thoroughly, 
than they did — not merely to lop off some more of the 
branches of this error, but to extirpate completely the 
error itself, which has so long hidden the glory of the 
Gospel, and fettered its progress in the world. 

This apparent falling away, is not to be taken as an 
evidence that the Gospel has spent its force, and that 
Christianity is a decaying system, and must soon pass 
away and give place to some other form of religion, 
better adapted to meet the wants of a higher civiliza- 
tion ; that a supernatural religion has had its day, and 
must yield its place to one that is scientific and natural — 
if to any ; — that the doctrines taught in the Bible are 
losing their hold on the hearts and consciences of men ; 
that though answering very well for mankind in their 
state of childhood and ignorance, they are altogether 
too crude and imperfect to be received as the truth, in 
this age of scientific light and knowledge — No not this ; 
but that the people are becoming more critical in their 
inquiry ; What is Bible truth ? and less willing to be 
controlled by human authorities, and the traditions of 
men that have been read into the Bible. They want a 
God to worship, whom they cm love and trust, as well 
as fear, a Saviour to save them from a peril that is felt 
to be imminent, a religion whose sanctions are justified 
by the principles it inculcates. 

However practicable it might once have been, it is no 
longer possible, to hold men to doctrines that contradict 
their intelligence, nor to views of God and His govern- 



60 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



ment that are repugnant to the sense of justice He has 
implanted within them. Christianity is the only relig- 
ion that has ever had any tendency to lift men up from 
sin and its degradation, and to fit them for the immor- 
tality that is set before them, through the Incarnation of 
a Divine Saviour. The Gospel of Christ, as it came 
from the lips of its Author, has lost none of its virtue 
or power. It is as really adapted now to the wants of 
perishing men, as when first preached by Christ and His 
disciples. It is now, as then, the only hope of a lost 
world. It is still the power of God unto salvation, to 
every one that believeth, and there is salvation in no 
other name but that of Christ, the Giver of Eternal Life. 
But so long as men are assured of their indefeasible 
claim to this Eternal Life, without Him, they will have 
but little sense of their need of this Life-Giver, and 
but little fear that God, in his great mercy, will fail to 
find some way to save them from the consequences of 
their sins, in the life beyond, if not in this. 

But what is " the great salvation," that is offered us in 
the Gospel? What is it that constitutes it good news, — 
as the word imports — to dying men? It is this — That 
" God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten 
Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish 
but have Everlasting Life." It is not that we are to be 
saved from suffering or dying. This is the common lot 
of all men, believers and unbelievers alike. We must 
all eat our bread in sorrow, all the days of our life, till 
we go down into Hades. Christ Himself as the Son of 
Adam went there — but as the Son of God, He rose vic- 
torious over its power, by the Divine life that was in 
Him, and so shall all His people, by the same Divine 
life — that new life which He shall give them. 

But so long as the minds of men are occujned with 



Chap. III.] INFLUENCE OF THIS FALSE DOGMA. 



61 



the delusive hope of an immortality, already assured, 
the light of this glorious Gospel cannot shine into them 
in all its fullness and power. Christ Himself, though 
robbed of His chief glory as the only Giver of this 
Everlasting Life, may still receive the praises and admi- 
ration of men, as the kind, suffering, dying "Lamb of 
God." But it is only as men are made to see, and feel 
that they must actually perish, without Him ; that they 
have no substantial, enduring life in themselves, and can 
have no hope of its perpetuity hereafter, that they will 
earnestly seek Him as their Life-Giver and Saviour. 

The real Gospel message is the proclamation of this 
Life — Life out of death — Eternal Life to mortal — not to 
immortal men — through Jesus Christ its only Source. 
The grand distinction between the saint and the sinner, 
is not that the one is so much better than the other, that 
the saint is to be rewarded with eternal bliss, and the 
sinner is to be punished with eternal misery. The world 
cannot see any ground for such a distinction in them ; 
nor can they be made to believe that there is any such 
distinction to be made, in the life to come. 

But they can be made to see and feel, whenever their 
religious guides shall so teach them, that all men, since 
the fall, are naturally and inevitably mortal, whatever 
may be their moral character. It is only by a new birth, 
and a resurrection from the dead, through Christ, that 
any child of Adam can possess this imperishable life. It 
is imperishable because it is the Divine life imparted to 
the soul of man, by a new birth. This is the only life 
that is imperishable. Failing of this, no man has " the 
power of an endless life " within him. 

The Church of Christ by encouraging natural men to 
expect an immortal life, that is assured only to the chil- 
dren of God, have obscured the main distinction between 



62 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



the regenerate and the unregenerate, have turned the 
sacrificial death of Christ into an unmeaning tragedy, 
and robbed the Gospel of the chief element of its ex- 
cellency and power. This, we believe to be the prime 
cause of her want of success in urging it upon the world. 

The doctrine of immortality, not by nature, but by a 
supernatural birth from above, is an offence to the nat- 
ural man, who prides himself upon the nobility of his 
nature. But it is the truth of God, and credible as well 
as true, and affords no sinner any just occasion for 
reproaching his Maker. It is the doctrine of the Gospel, 
and the only Gospel that was known to the primitive 
disciples, or early Christians, till their faith was cor- 
rupted by the cunning of the great Deceiver, through 
Grecian philosophy that he might " strengthen the hands 
of the wicked, that he should not turn from his wicked 
way by promising him life." (Ezek. 13 : 2'2.) 

When the Church of Christ returns to the faith, 
from which she has been seduced, and holds forth again 
the simple truth, as it is in Jesus, there will be no diffi- 
culty in making men see and feel their perishing condi- 
tion, and believing it, as they now do not, they will cry 
out, as under the preaching of Paul and Silas : " What 
must we do to be saved?" The Sanctuaries will again 
be crowded to hear " the words of this life." The early 
missionary spirit will again revive, and Christians, at 
home and abroad, will labor with a zeal and faithfulness 
to save their perishing fellowmen, which can only be in- 
spired and kept alive by a hearty belief, that they are 
actually going down to death, and unless they be rescued 
and saved before they die, they must perish utterly and 
forever. 



Chap. III.] INFLUENCE OF THIS FALSE DOGMA. 



63 



Note. " The doctrine of Life in Christ is the key to the 
interpretation of Scripture. Bead in this light, the Bible is a 
new book. The perplexities, the doubts, the surmisings of 
God that would force their way, the dark, gloomy future, are 
all dispersed. This doctrine has made the Bible ten thousand 
times more precious to me than it was before ; has made Christ 
more honored, and the Great Father more loved. 

si I no longer wonder that there should be fierce and inveterate 
opposition to the propagation of this grand doctrine. It was 
the very first truth which Satan sought to obscure and obliter- 
ate by the introduction into the Christian Church of a specious 
and false philosophy borrowed from Greece and Egypt, and 
first taught by himself to Eve in Eden. He will not so easily 
part with a philosophy which has enabled him to do his work . 
so well. Views that cover God with the aspect of injustice, or 
alienate men's minds from Him, or lead ten thousands to infi- 
delity, or enable men to get rid altogether of the idea that sin 
is a fatal and destructive thing, will not be easily given up. 
The doctrine that the soul is the true man, and that the soul 
is gifted with an inalienable immortality, brought in a muti- 
lated shape into theology from the philosophy of Plato, has 
led to ail this. It has led to Augustine's exhibition of God as 
a being of revolting cruelty, and to the future of much of His 
world as displaying only the most intense and harrowing 
misery; it has led to Origen's excision of vengeance from 
among the Divine attributes, thereby opening the way to un- 
bridled sin; it has led to the Boman purgatory, with all its 
attendant errors, as a refuge from what was felt to be too great 
a punishment to be inflicted by God upon ordinary offenders; 
it has raised against Scripture and the God of the Bible the 
derisive taunt and outcry of infidelity: it has caused the hearts 
of believers to mourn over a conduct on the part of God which 
they could not justify. Altogether, no dogma whatever can 
be named which has been productive of one-half the evil con- 
sequences that the dogma of man's inalienable immortality 
has produced. This is what we have gained by introducing 
into our theology under another name and under a specious 
disguise the old Alanichsen heresy of the eternity of evil. I 
have no hesitation in saying that the eterniry of evil as taught 
by the school of Augustine is a far greater slander upon the 
character of God than this same error as it was propounded by 



64 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



tlie Persian ATanes. Manes supposed evil to be an eternal and 
essential part of the constitution of the Universe, the school 
of Augustine represents God as the perpetuator of evil by be- 
stowing immortality upon the evil-doer. We cannot wonder 
that all the craft of the Arch-deceiver should be put forth to 
maintain such a doctrine as this. Nor are men at all ready to 
part with long-established opinions. The triumph of the doc- 
trine of Life in Christ will produce a revolution in theology. 
The standard works alike of the Reformed and the Roman 
churches are in a great measure based upon the idea of the 
inalienable immortality of man. The interpretation of Scrip- 
ture takes it as its starting point. When this comes to be 
acknowledged as a mere human conceit, many admired com- 
mentaries, treatises, sermons, confessions of faith, will be 
seen to have been based, in great measure, upon a foundation 
of sand. 

" But the truth will shine out the clearer for all this. To the 
truth we are ready to sacrifice a whole hecatomb of human 
writings; and the truth is spreading far and wide. In Great 
Britain it is spreading slowly but surely against prejudice and 
authority. In the United States it is spreading much more 
rapidly. From the Atlantic to the Pacific sea-board of the 
Great Republic, men of acute mind, who will not submit to the 
bidding of others no better able to judge than themselves, are 
examining the great question. I have little doubt of the result. 
I look forward, at no distant day to see 'the Christian mind 
shake off the false theology, founded on a mutilated Philoso- 
phy, and wonder that it could ever have submitted to it for a 
year or a day.' " Preface to Duration and Nature of Future 
Punishment, Fifth Edition. H. Constable. 



CHAPTER IV. 



The Teachings of Nature and Reason. 

Our argument on the question of human immortality 
rests mainly, if not wholly, on the Word of God. This 
teaches us all we need to know, and, indeed, all we can 
know, with any certainty, of the destiny of man. It 
was given us for this express purpose. But as this great 
error, which we are controverting, makes its appeal to 
Nature and Reason, and appears to have its main force 
in what they are supposed to teach, we will consider, as 
briefly as we can, the arguments drawn from these 
sources, before proceeding to the examination of the 
Scriptures. 

The Naturalist, looking at such facts as Nature pre- 
sents, declares that he finds no evidence in them, that 
any man will live again after death. And from his 
standpoint, he is able to bring quite an array of reasons 
for his conclusion. 

The sentimental Philosopher, on the other hand, rea- 
soning from sentiment, and the natural instincts of man, 
concludes that man will never die at all; that what seems 
to be death, is only a change of state, one step, in his 
•onward and upward development, toward perfection of 
being. 

We learn from the Scriptures that there is something 
of truth in each of these two extremes. But without 
these Divine Oracles, we have no means of knowing 

65 



66 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



just what this truth is, nor where it lies, nor how these 
two conflicting views are to be reconciled. 

Scripture agrees with Science, in teaching, that man's 
natural life, like that of all other living creatures, ends 
with death ; it furthermore teaches, that t here can be no 
hope of a second life, for any man, without a Divine, 
supernatural interposition, to raise him up again ; and 
then — going beyond the reach of all scientific research — 
it shows us God's method of restoring the dead to life, 
and of bestowing upon mortals the unspeakable gift of 
Eternal Life. 

It also agrees with Philosophy in teaching, that God 
did originally, and does even now, design man for a 
never-ending life, and for this reason, He implanted the 
instinct of immortality within him ; but it is for an im- 
mortality in holiness, and in harmony with Himself the 
Creator, and not in sin and rebellion against Him. It 
f urthermore declares, that, unless man can be recovered 
from the doom of death, to which sin, when it is fin- 
ished, inevitably leads, and reunited to God in holiness 
and love, he «an have no fitness for this endless life, nor 
any hope of attaining to it. 

We have no fault to find with Scientists or Philoso- 
phers as such. For without a Divine Revelation, they 
have no means of arriving at the ultimate truth on this 
question, which is only "brought to light in the Gospel." 
But we do find fault with those so-called Christian Sci- 
entists and Philosophers, who, having the Gospel, so 
completely ignore its teachings, as to rest their conclu- 
sions, mainly if not entirely, on the findings of Science 
and Philosophy; and because, on the one hand, their 
analysis of matter gives no evidence of a future life, 
conclude there is none, — in spite of the declaration of 
God's Word ; or, on the other, because they find in man 



Chap. IV.] 



NATURE AND REASON, 



67 



the sentiments and instincts of a future life, conclude, 
not only that it is absolutely endless, but also, that it is 
the assured portion of every man, whatever his moral 
character may be, — notwithstanding the declaration of 
God's Word, that it is the portion only of the saved. 

It seems strange, passing strange, that, when God 
Himself has spoken so clearly, and emphatically on this 
very subject, concerning w r hich there is so much need of 
instruction, men professedly Christian, with His Word 
in their hands, should " turn away from Him that 
speaketh from heaven " to the dubious oracles of earth, 
for wisdom, and be so ready to subordinate His authori- 
tative teaching, to human speculation. 

We cheerfully, and gladly accept of all the lessons of 
Nature and Reason, for just what they can teach, but for 
no more. We cannot allow them to control in the do- 
main of spiritual things, into which they are unable to 
enter. In their own province, so far as they are cor- 
rectly interpreted, they are in beautiful accord with the 
Oracles of God , but in all that is spiritual and supernat- 
ural, we must take His Word as our supreme and 
ultimate authority ; and we must also insist, that it be so 
taken by all who, as professedly Christian men, undertake 
to argue with us, this question of human Immortality. 

It is then rather for the sake of giving completeness 
to our view, and because it will be expected of us, and 
also, that we may show how imperfect and unreliable are 
all human sources of knowledge on this question, than 
because it seems really important, that we devote a few 
pages to what are supposed to be the teachings of 
Nature and Reason, before we proceed with the Scrip- 
tural argument. 

I. The nature of the soul. It is said, that, if the 
soul be " a simple, pure, uncompounded, unorganized 

J 



63 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



entity," then it must be indestructible and necessarily 
immortal. But who knows that such is the nature of 
the soul ? It is a sheer assumption, without one particle 
of evidence to sustain it. The argument that is founded 
on it amounts simply to this : If the soul be inde- 
structible, it is indestructible. If it be immortal, it is 
immortal. But the assumption leads to a broader con- 
clusion. The logical mind of Plato saw it, and therefore 
he concluded, that the soul, if such be its nature, could 
have had no beginning, and likewise will have no end ; 
that man. so far as his soul is concerned, is an uncreated 
being ; that when a child is born, an immortal soul enters 
his body, and when he dies, it goes out again, either to 
enter some other body, or to exist in a ghostly state 
forever ; and that the number of such souls is eternally 
the same, neither being increased by new births, nor 
diminished by deaths. But Christian men, — who cannot 
but admit that God created man, and that he has a 
definite beginning, — by rejecting the former part of the 
conclusion, have vitiated the latter part ; because both 
parts must go together. For it is evident that what had 
a beginning, may have an end ; and what has been cre- 
ated, may be uncreated. If the soul of man is not of 
such a nature as to exclude the idea of its creation, it 
certainly is not of such a nature, as to save it from pos- 
sible destruction.* 

*"It must indeed be confessed that the argument of the 
immaterialist. as sometimes conducted, if pushed to its conse- 
quences, would go near to imply the. immortality of birds, 
beasts and fishes, of insects and of zoophytes! . Why should 
that which is immaterial, be indestructible? None can tell us; 
and on the contrary, we are free to suppose that there may be 
immaterial orders, enjoying their hour of existence and then 
returning to nihility." Physical Theory of Another Life. chap, 
xx. Isaac Taylok. 



Chap. IV.] 



NATURE AND REASON. 



60 



But granting the assumption, that the soul is " a sim- 
ple, pure, uncompo uncled, unorganized substance or 
entity," and that it has a beginning ; the question arises : 
When is that beginning ? Are souls made beforehand, 
and kept in readiness to meet human demands? or, are 
they made to order, and put into the child's body at 
birth, or at some period before or after birth? We 
press this question upon those who hold that the soul is 
an entity separate and separable from the body and in- 
dependent of it. It is not an idle question ; but is one 
that is important for them to consider. If they are 
unable to answer it, let them tell, at least, if they can, 
wmether it be a full grown, mature, responsible soul, at 
the outset, or does it grow in strength and maturity, 
with the body ? The former supposition would be 
fatuous, and lead to the absurd conclusion, that new- 
born infants are equally responsible, for their moral ex- 
ercises and acts, with adults. If they take the latter 
supposition, then we would ask them to tell us, why the 
soul may not fail, as well as rise and grow with the 
body ; how can they show, that the soul does not follow 
the fortunes of the body, but is, as they would have us 
believe, independent of it? 

Let them show, how it is possible for such " a simple, 
pure, uncompouncled, unorganized entity " to carry on 
all the varied and complex operations of thought, feeling 
and action within the body and independent of it ; or at 
least, let them show that it is possible. 

If they shall admit, on the other hand, that the soul is 
an organism, then, it may be ^organized, and like all 
other organisms, its functional or organic action ceases, 
when the organism is broken up. But if they still insist 
that the soul is " a simple, unorganized entity," they 
must admit, that a bodily organism is necessary to the 



70 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



exercise of its functions. If the soul bad no conscious 
life or activity, till it was united with the body, what 
evidence is there to show, that it can maintain its indi- 
s vidual life, and fulfil its functions, after the bodily organ- 
ization is destroyed ? There is every evidence possible 
in the nature of the case, to show, that the body is as 
necessary to the soul, as the soul is to the body; and 
that they are mutually dependent on each other. An 
injury to the brain, through which the soul is supposed 
to act, affects the soul likewise; it may cause insanity, 
it may cause insensibility, until the injury is repaired ; 
it may cause death. Is it reasonable to suppose, that 
while an injury to the brain that is not fatal, injuriously 
affects the soul to the same extent, an injury that is still 
greater — that is fatal — does not injuriously affect its 
consciousness and activity at all, but only gives it greater 
freedom of action and feeling? 

The fact is, the whole argument for the immortality of 
man founded on the nature of his soul, rests upon a 
pure assumption, and will not bear investigation. The 
only difficulty in meeting it, is the same that applies to 
any other idle fancy; there is nothing solid to argue 
against. It can be only a waste of words between us, 
and those who hold it, to argue it further, till they can 
show that it has something beside a mere guess to 
sustain it. 

Note. The reader is referred to Locke's Essay on the Human 
Understanding : in which arguing against the assumption of the 
necessary immateriality of the soul, he says "that in respect 
to our notions, it is not much more remote from our compre- 
hension to conceive that God can, if He pleases, superadd to our 
idea of matter a faculty of thinking, than that He should 
superadd to it another substance, with the faculty of think- 
ing." . . "To say that God cannot give to matter a faculty of 
thinking, is to say God's omnipotency is limited to a narrow 
compass, because man's understand ing is so; and brings down 
God's infinite power to the size of our capacities." . . "11 one 



Chap. IV.] 



NATURE AND REASON. 



71 



II. The capacities and capabilities of Man. The 
argument from the nature of the soul, which we have 
just considered, so far as there is any argumentative 
force in it, would seem to be as applicable to brutes as 
to men. This our opponents are constrained to admit ; 
but they tell us, there is this distinction to be observed ; 
that, while the brute seems to reach the limit of his 
capacity, man is cut short in the midst of his career ; 
that he is capable of infinite improvement and progress, 
and, that it is reasonable to suppose, that an opportunity 
will be given him for further development and progress, 
in another life. Granting all this, we are not to assume, 
as too many do, that such a future life, would, of neces- 
sity, be an endless life. Eternal existence is a mystery, 
which no finite mind can fathom. What changes may 
come ; what worlds and systems of worlds, teeming with 
life, may yet be created, and pass away, to give place to 
others ; what aeons, and cycles of agons may follow each 
other, in their perpetual round, throughout the infinite 
future, who can know, but the infinite Creator Himself? 
Reason cannot assure us, that there is no possible limit 
in the endless future to human development and prog- 
ress ; much less, can it assure us, that this development 
and j3rogress would be forever maintained, in the case of 
every one, who might be started on such a career. We 
are not to assume, that everything that is created will 
surely reach the utmost limit of its capacity. Indeed, 
we know it is not so. The brutes that are supposed to 

allows brutes to have sensation, it will follow either that God 
can and doth give to some parcels of matter a power of per- 
ception and thinking; or that all animals have immaterial, and 
consequently, according to your lordship (the Bishop of Wor- 
cester), immortal souls as well as men ; and to say that fleas and 
mites, etc., have immortal souls as well as men, will possibly 
be looked on as going a great way to serve an hypothesis," 
Book IV. chap. 3. * 



72 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



be limited in their capacities, are often cut short in the 
midst of their career, before they have reached that 
limit. Trees are often blighted and destroyed, before 
they are half grown. Flowers are nipped in the bud. 
The promise of fruitage is not always realized. And 
who shall assure us, that man shall escape all the dangers 
that threaten his opening life, and reach the farthest 
possible goal or rather go on forever without reaching 
any goal ? 

But it is not true that every one continues in a course 
of development and progress, to the end even of his 
present life. There are multitudes who, apparently, 
reach the summit of their powers, both physical and in- 
tellectual, ev<m before they come to the end of their 
course, and then go down, as they came up, into feeble- 
ness and decay and death. There are many who have 
no higher aim in life, than the beasts that perish, wdiose 
only inquiry is, " What shall we eat, and what shall we 
drink, and wherewithal shall w T e be clothed?" And 
with their wants gratified, they become as stupid and 
indifferent to all higher wants, as the brutes themselves. 
Yea, there are many, whose development is actually 
downward, toward that which is low and groveling ; 
whose thoughts, whose aims, whose desires and pleasures 
are all carnal and beastly ; and who go down from one 
degree of sottish sinful life to another, till they sink far 
below the level, even of decent brutes, and die of very 
rottenness. Their lamps go out in darkness. What 
reason have we to suppose, that they are lighted up 
again to shine forever? What are they fit for, but to be 
burned ? Indeed, observation, to say nothing of Scrip- 
ture, teaches us that the number who lay any solid foun- 
dation for permanent progress hereafter, is comparatively 
few. 



Chap. IV.] 



.NATURE AND REASON. 



73 



It is a law of God's providence, which even Nature, 
as well as Revelation teaches, that " to every one that 
hath, shall be given and he shall have abundance ; but, 
from him that hath not, — that is, improves not what is 
given him, — shall be taken away even that he hath." 
Faculties that are misimproved, or not improved at all, 
cannot be preserved ; they fall into imbecility and decay. 
Not merely God's Word, but Reason and Nature urge 
us, with ten thousand voices to the wise improvement of 
what we have, if we would gain more, or even keep 
what we have. This is as true of man's intellectual and 
moral, as of his physical nature. The mind that is un- 
cultivated becomes stupid and driveling ; also, the heart 
dies in its selfish confinement, if not drawn out toward 
some object that is worthy of its love. We are not con- 
stituted for the exercise of evil passions, but only for 
the exercise of those that are pure and lovely. We are 
out of harmony with the world about us, and with our 
own selves, when we fall under the power of evil pas- 
sions and desires, or when those that are normally good 
are abused by excessive indulgence. We are like a 
machine that is out of order ; the tendency is to entire 
dissolution and ruin. Evil passions within the soul, like 
disease in the body, tend to corrode, corrupt and destroy. 
We are taught by observation, as well as by Revelation, 
that " Evil shall slay the wicked," but " the righteous 
shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall 
be stronger and stronger." It is only as one rises 
toward that which is good and true and perfect, that he 
acts in harmony with his own nature, or can have any 
assurance that his progress will be stable and permanent. 

III. Human Instincts and Aspirations. We are 
told that men love life and cling to it, and that they 
4 



74 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



naturally shrink back from death. All this is very true. 
But it is not true of man only. Ail animals have an 
instinct of life. This is needful to its preservation. 
This instinct gives no more assurance of its perpetuity 
in the one case than in the other. But it is urged, that 
it is something more than a mere instinct in man; it is 
a sentiment that reaches forward into the future, and is 
never able to find its full satisfaction in any present at- 
tainment, nor to rest content in any present possession. 
It is true, man was not made to be satisfied with the 
good that comes from the possession of material things, 
nor with the gratification of his physical wants. He 
was intended for higher things, and made capable of 
them. But what if he will not seek them ? What if 
he knows not where to find this higher good ; or if he 
knows, what if he has no desire to seek it ? What if he 
closes his ears to the voice of true wisdom, and persists 
in seeking his highest gratification in those things which 
can only increase his thirst, but never satisfy it? Is 
God beholden to give him ultimate and perpetual happi- 
ness in whatever way he shall choose to seek it, or 
whether he shall use such light as he may have in seek- 
ing it. # 

* " It is sometimes said that the intense longings we have for 
immortality, prove that man is immortal. That there are such 
longings I do not dispute ; nor do I dispute that they come 
from God's Spirit. But I have yet to learn that to long for a 
thing proves the possession of it. The very fact of longing for 
a thing implies that we have it not. Still this longing does 
prove that we are capable of immortality and may obtain it if 
we set to work in the right manner. It seems to me that God 
very graciously puts into our breasts this unceasing longing for 
immortality to make us reflecting men ; to induce us to inquire 
about it, from the only Book that can teach ns right concerning 
it; to induce us to seek it, and when we get it to hold it fast." 
Immortality in Christ Kev. H. S. Waeleigh. 



Chap. IV.] 



NATURE AND REASON. 



75 



Indeed, it might be presumed, that the Creator would 
make known to man the way of attaining to the true 
end of his being, and supply him with the means neces- 
sary thereto. We might further suppose that, having 
wandered from this way, or having lost it through folly 
or sin, He would, in His great mercy, show him the way 
of return, and " devise means that His banished be not 
expelled from Him." This is just what He has done in 
the Gospel. But' the Gospel is not a scheme of compul- 
sion. It is good news to the lost and perishing. It is a 
message of invitation, of exhortation, of entreaty, yea 
of command ; but it is addressed to voluntary agents. 
What if man will not listen to this message of mercy ? 
What if he has no relish for the kind of good it offers 
him ? What if he prefers those gratifications that are 
sensual and transitory? How shall his higher nature be 
satisfied or saved from perishing ? 

Those to whom the Gospel has never been given 
might, perhaps, be excused for fancying in their blind- 
ness, that they would reach the goal of their hopes in 
whatever direction they might seek it, or whether they 
should seek it or not ; but how can those who have this 
Gospel so misread it, as to suppose that all the good, it 
promises to the obedient, the diligent, the faithful, will 
be given unconditionally to those who are not obedient, 
or diligent or faithful? and that the highest of all 
boons, the gift of an endless life, will be bestowed upon 
all men indiscriminately, whether they are fitted to 
enjoy it or not? And yet Christian men, and even min- 
isters, so called, of the Gospel of Christ, do so reason, in 
their efforts to prove the immortality of man on the 
ground of his natural instincts. Rev. Joseph Cook says 
in his positive way, "Man is an organized lie," if this 
greatest of all gifts is not bestowed upon him. If he 



76 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



rneans by this, that God's truth could not be justified, 
if He had not designed man for immortality, and made 
it possible for man to attain to it, it is just what we all 
believe and teach, and what God's TVord declares. It is 
too evident to require any such oracular assertion. But 
if he means, what his whole argument implies, and what 
he evidently intends to be understood as teaching : — 
That God is equally beholden to the good, and bad alike, 
to give them what they most desire, it is the rankest sort 
of Universalis m. 

But more than this — what if man shall defy the wrath 
of the Almighty by rebelling against Him ? What if he 
shall despise His laws, and trample His ordinances 
under foot, and scorn His overtures of mercy ? Is there 
no such thing as destruction under the government of 
heaven ? Has God made the life of man so sacred, that 
He cannot take it away Himself ? Is there no death 
penalty attached to His laws ? Is it reserved for human 
governments alone to take the life of incorrigible of- 
fenders ; and must the Almighty Ruler content Himself 
with imprisoning and tormenting His enemies forever 
and ever, because He gave them, in the outset, a life 
which he could not take away ? Xeither Reason nor 
Nature teaches any such doctrine ; and what is more, 
Revelation flatly contradicts it. 

IV. The Analogy of Nature. The natural world is 
thought to give many unmistakable hints of a future- 
life for man. The revival of vegetation in the Spring, 
after the torpor of winter ; the shooting up of the fresh 
germ from the seed, that has been buried in the ground ; 
the transformation of the crawling grub into the winged 
butterfly, as it bursts from its winding sheet in the 
chrysalis ; the awakening from sleep after the rest of the 



Chap. IV.] 



NATURE AND REASON. 



77 



night ; all these, and other processes of nature are taken 
as symbols of the resurrection from the dead to an im- 
mortal life. Let us take them for all they teach ; and 
when enlightened by Revelation, we shall find in them 
many beautiful and important lessons. But there is 
nothing supernatural in any of these changes. They are 
all natural processes of life in its different stages. There 
is no actual death in any of them. The tree or the 
plant that actually dies, does not revive in the Spring. 
Seed that is actually dead will not sprout up and grow. 
The grub, when it passes into the chrysalis state does 
not die. It only becomes dormant. If it were to die, 
the pupa would not live again.* Sleep, though it be 
called the Sister of Death, is only such in appearance. 
If it were real death there would be no awaking, but 
only corruption and dissolution. Hence the inquiry of 
Job, "If a man die shall he live again?" is not an- 
swered by any of these processes. "Man dieth and 
wasteth away, yea, man giveth up the ghost and where 
is he ? " Nature does not answer this question by any 
of her analogies. It is answered only by Divine Reve- 

*" So striking is the analogy between these metamorphoses 
and reanimation of man, that many able writers on Natural 
theology have considered them as direct proof of his future 
resurrection. But unfortunately there is one defect in the 
analogy, that seems to have been overlooked. When man is 
laid in the grave, we know that no vestige of life remains. We 
may inflict whatever injury we please upon the dead body, but 
it will exhibit no signs of sensibility. But not so with the 
chrysalis. In its most torpid state, you can always find marks 
of vitality, or rather, if you cannot discover signs of life, it will 
never come forth as a perfect insect. The conclusion, there- 
fore, is, that the curious facts respecting insect metamorphosis, 
although a beautiful emblem of man's resurrection, are but a 
poor argument in direct proof of the doctrine." The Resurrec- 
tion of Spring by Pres. Edward Hitchcock. 



78 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GTET. 



[Part I. 



lation. The Resurrection of the dead is not a natural 
process. It is altogether abnormal and miraculous. 
Those who undertake to argue the natural immortality 
of man from these natural processes of life in its different 
stages, confuse their minds by misinterpreting them, and 
instituting false analogies. 

Paul's reference to the sowing of seed and the spring- 
ing up of new plants, when arguing the resurrection of 
the dead, in 1 Corinthians 15th, is not to substantiate 
the fact of a resurrection ; for he expressly declares it to 
be a supernatural event. It is to illustrate the greatness 
of the change and the power by which it is effected. 
The plant that furnishes the seed, is not raised, as in the 
case of the man that is buried. Mankind, as well as 
animals and plants are propagated in this way ; but the 
identical animals and plants are not reproduced ; nor if 
they were dead could they furnish even the seed for the 
propagation of other animals and plants. The question 
is not ; Shall the race of mankind, or shall the same 
genus or species of plants be continued in their suc- 
cessors ; but shall the individuals themselves live again 
after they are dead ? and shall they live forever ? 

But our inquiry, it should be remembered, is not sim- 
ply concerning another life, but concerning the endless- 
ness of that life. Here the analogy fails altogether; for 
the life that is reproduced in these processes, is no more 
permanent than the original life. We are not to pre- 
sume that all future life is necessarily interminable. 
The question then recurs, " Is man destined to an endless 
existence, or an endless series of existences beyond this 
life ? and is this true of every man ? " 

On the contrary, so far as these analogies show any- 
thing on this subject, they show the very doctrine for 
which we are contending, — the doctrine of a conditional 
immortality. It is not every tree that revives in the 



Chap. IV.] 



NATURE AND EEAS0X. 



70 



Spring, but only such as have a living root. It is not 
every seed that germinates ; but only such as have a 
vital principle in them. So also we contend, it is not 
every man that rises to an immortal life, but only those 
who have the true life in them. 

Let us consider well the illustration so often employed, 
of the change of the grub into the butterfly. It is not 
every pupa or grub that has gone into the chrysalis that 
rises into the winged butterfly, when the time for this 
change comes ; but only such as are fitted for it. Natu- 
ralists tell us, that grubs, caterpillars and larvae, and 
lepidoptera generally, are quite liable to fail of develop- 
ment into the second stage, through injuries received in 
this first stage of lite. Every one of these crawling 
grubs is said to carry within its first body an embryo 
butterfly, or psyche, as it is called in Greek — (the very 
term by which the human soul is designated), upon 
which little ichneumon flies often prey, without doing 
any apparent injury to the grub in its first stage. It 
fulfils its natural larva life, like all other grubs of its 
kind, wraps itself in its winding sheet, and goes into the 
chrysalis state, in the hope as it were, of rising, in due 
time as a butterfly. But this hope is never realized. It 
goes to corruption, and utterly perishes ; for the butter- 
fly or psyche within, was destroyed while in its embryo, 
in the first stage. This winged or lepidopterous state is 
reserved for those, and those only that carry with them 
to the end, this embryo p>s yche uninjured and fit for its 
resurrection life. 

The parallel seems perfect. If it does not foretoken 
and teach the doctrine of conditional immortality, or 
the immortality only of the righteous — that is, of those 
who are fitted for it, as we maintain, then it is impossi- 
ble for Xature to teach any Scriptural doctrine by 
analogy. 



CHAPTER V. 

The Natural and Rational Argument. 
( Continued. ) 

"It is very becoming that men's zeal for the truth should go 
as far as their proofs, but not go for the proofs themselves. 
He that received opinions with anything but fair arguments, 
may, I own, be justly suspected not to mean well, nor be led 
by the love of truth; but the same may be said of him, too, 
who so defends them. An error is not the better for being 
common, nor truth the worse for having lain neglected; and if 
it were put to the vote anywhere in the world, I doubt, as 
things are managed, whether truth would have the majority, 
at least whilst the authority of men, and not the examination 
of things must be its measure." Essay concerning the Human 
Understanding. John Locke. 

V. The doctrine of the Natural Immortality of 3fa?i 
is supposed to find support in the general belief of Man- 
kind. The advocates of this doctrine are accustomed to 
rely much on this argument, in discussing this question. 
They have so commonly, and so confidently assumed 
it to be a fact, that mankind have generally believed 
in the personal immortality of the individual, that most 
persons have supposed it must be so. We would cheer- 
fully concede it to them, and whatever advantage they 
might draw from it — if any — in this argument, if it 
were true. Indeed, in some of our earlier writings, 
trusting too much to the assertions of others, we did 
concede this ; but a more careful study of the various 
religious notions of the world at large, has convinced us 
that it is a mistake. This has not been the general 
belief of the heathen world. But on the contrary, so 
SO 



Chap. V.] NATURAL AND RATIONAL ARGUMENT. 



81 



far as they have had any thought or belief on this sub- 
ject, it has been to a large extent just the opposite of 
this. If there be any advantage in this argument, in 
citing the vague notions of mankind unenlightened by 
revelation, it would certainly inure to our side of the 
question. 

It is true, that dim and fluctuating ideas of some sort 
of a future state of rewards and punishments are quite 
common to all men, who think at all on this subject. 
They are suggested by the unequal distribution of good 
and evil in this life ; by the moral sense with which their 
Creator has endowed them, and perhaps also, by the 
tradition of a divine revelation to the fathers of our race 
after the fall, and which, though vaguely given at first, 
and sadly obscured and perverted by superstition, has 
never been entirely lost to the world. 

But the idea of a future state, for the purpose of re- 
wards and punishments is quite different from that of an 
endless existence hereafter. The idea of a second life 
does not exclude that of a second death, and final extinc- 
tion of being, even for those who are rewarded hereafter, 
much less for those who are punished. Those who have 
argued this question, have not been careful to distinguish 
between the sentiment of a future, which is indefinite^ 
and one which is absolutely infinite. It is very common 
to confuse these two ideas, though they are, in fact, 
radically distinct. The Word of God evidently points 
to a future, even for the wicked ; but it is a future that 
is terminated by a death, from which there is no recall. 
And yet men leap, at once, to the conclusion that, if 
there be any future whatever for the wicked, it must be 
an eternal future. So they interpret the Scriptures as 
teaching; their endless conscious existence in sufferino' in 
a future state. In the same way they interpret, or 
4* 



82 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I, 



rather misinterpret, the notions of the heathen in regard 
to the future. 

These two ideas, or assumptions underlie the whole 
argument of Mr. Alger's plethoric and Anti-Christian 
volume, on the Doctrine of a Future Life; — that to be- 
lieve in any future life is to believe in one that is endless, 
and that if it is the lot of any portion of the race, it is 
of course the lot of all. Hence he almost, if not entirely 
ignores the doctrine of a limited life, or a conditional 
immortality which has always been held, not only by 
those who interpret the Scriptures literally, but also by 
multitudes on multitudes throughout the pagan world. 

The ancient Hebrews had no idea of the natural im- 
mortality of any one ; nor any hope of living again, 
excepting through the Almighty power of God in raising 
the dead ; and as for the wicked, their lot was death and 
utter destruction. 

The ancient Egyptians, who were more nearly in 
accord with the Hebrews in their religious notions than 
other races from whom they were more widely separated, 
seem to have believed in the resurrection of the bodies 
of the dead, and also in the final destruction of the 
wicked — their actual extinction of being — after having 
been sufficiently punished. 

So far as there is any consistency in the old Grecian 
mythology, it gives us no warrant for thinking that the 
ancient Greeks believed, either in the endless enjoyment 
of their fabulous Elysium, or in the endless torment of 
Tartaros; nor indeed, have we any evidence that the 
masses had any sincere belief in any existence whatever 
beyond this life. One of their own poets, in lamenting 
the death of a friend says : 

" The meanest herb we trample in the field, 
Or in the garden nurture ; when its leaf 



Chap. V.] NATURAL AND RATIONAL ARGUMENT. 



83 



In Autumn dies, forebodes another Spring, 
And from brief slumber wakes to life again. 
Man wakes no more ! Man, peerless, valiant, wise, 
Once chilled by death, sleeps hopeless in the dust, 
A long, unbroken, never-ending sleep." 

(Moschus Epit. Dion.) 

Socrates is represented by Plato as complaining, that 
" men in general are highly incredulous as to the soul's 
future existence," and of the impossibility of convincing 
them to the contrary. Indeed, he was put to death for 
his peculiar religious and philosophical heresies. 

In the poems of our Teutonic ancestors, the pleasures 
of the blessed in the halls of Odin, are represented as 
continuing long, but as finally coming to an end : 

" When Lok shall burst his seven-fold chain, 
And Night resume her ancient reign." 

The highest goal to which the pious Hindu aspires, is 
absorption into the universal spirit, or in other words, 
the complete loss of all individual existence; and the 
chief ultimate good for which the many millions of 
Buddhists seek, is Nirvana or utter extinction of con- 
scious, personal being. 

In fact the majority of our race in pagan lands have 
always been too degraded and brutish to seek or desire 
anything beyond the satisfaction of their present animal 
wants. It is only upon the more immediate future, that 
the few, the very few who have speculated on a life be- 
yond, have fixed their thoughts. Nor have we any good 
reason to think, that their poets and philosophers who 
have given free reins to their imagination, for the amuse- 
ment of the people, or the statesmen, who have taxed 
their ingenuity to devise means to support their author- 
ity, by working upon the fears of their subjects, have 
sincerely believed what they taught to others. Varro 



84 THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part I. 

says : " There are many truths which it is not expedient 
that the vulgar should know, and many falsehoods which 
it is expedient that the people should receive as truths." 
Gibbon, in his Decline and Fall, says : " With the peo- 
ple they (these teachings in regard to the future) were 
equally true, with the philosopher, equally false, and 
with the statesmen, equally necessary." 

Archbishop Whately, in his Essay on the Future 
State, shows conclusively that a belief in any life here- 
after, so far from being general among the ancient 
heathen nations, was not the serious belief of even the 
poets and philosophers, who put forth their speculations 
and fancies in regard to it. It was thought necessary, 
for prudential reasons, to impose them so far as possible, 
upon the masses, but among themselves, they laughed at 
the credulity of those who believed in the fables they 
taught them. He further says : 

" In reality the doctrine never was either generally 
admitted among the ancient philosophers, nor satisfac- 
torily proved by any of them, even in the opinion of 
those who argued in favor of it. Let it be remembered, 
then, when the arguments of the heathen sages are tri- 
umphantly brought forward in proof of the soul's 
immortality, that when they countenanced the doctrine 
of future retribution, they taught with a view to politi- 
cal expediency, what they did not themselves believe ; 
and that when they spoke their real sentiments on the 
subject, the eternity of existence, which they expected, 
as it implied the destruction of all distinct personality, 
amounted practically to nothing." 

It is doubtful whether even Plato, who went more 
deeply into this question than any of them, and whose 
philosophy has been so thoroughly incorporated into the 
Christian system, understood the mons or so-called 
" eternities " of which he spoke, to extend beyond what 



Chap. V.] NATURAL AND RATIONAL ARGUMENT. 



*5 



is termed " the Platonic year " — a period of six thousand 
suns. 

In fact, it is principally, if not only, under the Chris- 
tian system modified, as it has been by the philosophy 
of Plato, that this doctrine of the actual, personal im- 
mortality of all men — an immortality of blessedness for 
the righteous and an immortality of sin and suffering 
for the wicked has found general acceptance.* 

VI. It is thought by many that this cannot be an 
error, else the goodness of God would not have suffered 
it to take root and prevail as it has, especially in Chris- 
tian lands. How is it possible, it is asked, that God 
should have permitted learned and good men to be so 
misled, in regard to so important a doctrine as this? 
This inquiry would seem to apply with more force to 
the question in hand, if no other error had ever taken 
root, and prevailed in the Church, and in the world. 

But the religious history of the world is a history of 
error and delusion from the very beginning. Even in 
Paradise, the very first fact that is recorded of our first 
parents is that of their deception — and that, too, in re- 
gard to this very question of immortality. From that 
time to this, the vast majority of the human family have 
been given over — as Paul tells us in Romans 1 — to the 
most erroneous, distorted and abominable ideas of God, 
and of their relations to Him. And even His own 
chosen people, selected and separated from the world at 
large, that He might train them to better views of the 
truth, are seen continually lapsing into the false notions 
of the heathen nations that surrounded them. The 
career of the Christian Church, from the days of the 
Apostles to the Reformation, has been one of apostasy, 
heresies and corruption. The repeated warnings of our 

* See note at the end of this chapter. 



86 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



Lord to His disciples, to " beware of the tradition of the 
elders," to "beware of the leaven of the Pharisees" — 
who, by the way, were Piatonists on this very question — . 
and the earnest exhortation of the Apostles in their Epis- 
tles to the early Christians, show us the tendency there 
is, even among true disciples, toward error and the 
danger of falling into it. 

Peter says, in his Second Epistle : " There were false 
prophets among the people (in the days of Moses), even 
as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily 
shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord 
that bought them, and bringing upon themselves swift 
destruction ; and many shall follow their pernicious ways, 
by reason of whom, the way of truth shall be evil spoken 
of." Alas, how true his words have proved ! Paul, 
foreseeing this very. error, writes to the Corinthians, "I 
fear lest by any means, as the Serpent beguiled Eve, 
through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted 
from the simplicity that is in Christ." And again, in 
writing to Timothy, he says : " For the time will come 
when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after 
their own lusts, shall they heap to themselves teachers, 
having itching ears, and shall turn away their ears from 
the truth, and be turned unto fables." 

Since the Reformation of the sixteenth century, in view 
of the prevalence of such a vast and increasing number of 
sects, each contending for its own peculiar notions — and 
even more earnestly than they contend for the doctrines 
they hold in common, — we cannot suppose that the 
Church of Christ has yet got beyond the possibility of 
error. And still further, when we come to inquire into 
the history of these various creeds, and to learn how 
they have been made and see how they are transmitted 
from generation to generation, and how few there are 



Chap. V.j NATURAL AND RATIONAL ARGUMENT, 



87 



who care to search for doctrinal truth at the Fountain 
Head, and fewer still the number of those who dare to 
compromise their standing in the Church in which they 
have been educated, by differing from their associates 
on any popular doctrine, and how intolerant and unfair, 
even those who are otherwise very good men, are toward 
others that are equally good, who may honestly differ 
from them on any point of doctrine, our respect for mere 
human authority upon speculative questions, is very 
much weakened.^ 

In regard to any fact that can be observed, the testi- 
mony of intelligent witnesses is to be respected, and the 
greater the number of such credible witnesses, the 
stronger the evidence in its favor. But even in regard 
to facts, how often, has the careful observation of some 
individual shown, that the multitude who have gone 
before him were mistaken ? But in regard to matters of 
speculation, the guess or opinion of one man, however 
positive he may be, is no better than that of another ; 
nor is its authoritative value increased by the number of 
followers he may draw after him. Popularity gives no 
more force to any speculative opinion, than there is force 
in the reason on which it is founded. The strength of a 
chain that hangs insecurely, cannot be increased by add- 
ing to the number of its links ; nor does a traditional 
opinion gather any real increase of authority, from the 
number of generations through which it has come down 
to us. No time-piece can be depended on as giving the 
true time, however perfect its workmanship, unless we 
know it to have been set by a true standard. If the 
town clock be wrong, it is none the less wrong, though 
all the time-pieces in the town have been set by it ; and 

*See note on the New Congregational creed at the end of 
Chap. X. 



88 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



yet, their united testimony might seem to countervail 
that of any single time-piece that should differ from 
them, though it were the only one actually correct. 

An incident, exactly in point, occurs to the writer 
while penning these paragraphs. Happening to compare 
his watch with the clock of his host, he noticed a wide 
discrepancy between the two ; but when his host assured 
him that the clock was an excellent time-keeper, and 
must be right, he began to fear that his own watch 
might be at fault. To prove the correctness of the clock, 
the host took out his own watch, and found that it 
agreed exactly with his clock. Here two witnesses 
against one was still stronger evidence against the 
writer's watch, and it might have been accepted as proof 
conclusive that it was wrong, had he not taken the pains 
to inquire still further, when he found, that the clock 
had run down and stopped, during the night, and the 
cook had set it by guess, and then, the host had in con- 
fidence turned his own watch to agree with it. Now, 
had all the guests in the house set their time-pieces by 
this standard, the evidence against the writer's watch 
would have been apparently overwhelming, but in fact, 
it would have been of no more real value than the opin- 
ion of the cook. 

This is just the case with many of the most popular 
errors and delusions that have been current in the world. 
They are specious and plausible enough to gain the 
credence of those who do not inquire ; but when one 
inquires into their origin and history, he finds that they 
have no foundation in truth. 

This is the case with this wide-spread and popular 
error of universal immortality. It is so agreeable to the 
wishes of man, and so flattering to his pride, that it is 
well calculated to be popular. The natural and Scrip- 



Chap. V.] NATURAL AND RATIONAL ARGUMENT. 



89 



tural arguments in its favor, may be so marshaled, as to 
give an air of plausibility to it, but when one inquires 
into its origin and history, he finds the arguments for it 
altogether specious and unreliable, and that it has no 
better authority to rest upon, than the assurances of the 
Tempter, "Ye shall not surely die," to which the con- 
ceits and speculations of poets and philosophers and 
schoolmen, who have adopted the suggestion, add no 
weight whatever ; nor has it any real force, in the face 
of the most positive declaration of "God's Word to the 
contrary 

* " Unless we are prepared to accept as true the dogma of 
transubstantiation, to which it must be admitted, the recorded 
words of Christ do give some color, as well as the doctrine of 
the Papal primacy, of which the same thing may be said — un- 
less, I say we are ready to receive these doctrines as true, 
because the church at large did for centuries hold them with all 
but universal consent, we must allow that our Lord knowing 
all things which should happen, may have purposely used lan- 
guage, upon this point (eternal misery) which He foresaw, might 
very possibly, for a season, be misunderstood, with a view to 
the far-off: day when a clearer light would dawn, and the true 
meaning of His word shine forth. May it not be that the very 
ambiguity of the words, their capability of various interpre- 
tations, was intended to serve a beneficent purpose? There 
was a long reach of time in the history of the Church, during 
which the belief generally held with reference to eternal fire 
was that it would literally scorch and torture the flesh. Vv T e 
need not be too hasty in concluding that even this gross mis- 
interpretation of Christ's words was a calamity. Who shall say 
that the rough peoples, the savage races to which the gospel 
was then being carried, could in any other way have been 
made to feel the terrible reality of retribution in the world to 
come ; could any otherwise have been persuaded to look for- 
ward to that retribution as a thing to fear?" Conditional Im- 
mortality, bermon IV. on Matt. 25: 46. Wm. R. Huxtixgton, 
d.d. 



90 



THE TTXSPE ARABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



VII.* The supposed utility of this doctrine is thought 
to recommend it to our favor. 

The doctrine of Immortality only in Christ is objected 
to by many good people, not because it would displease 
them to find it true, but from fear of the consequences 
of its promulgation. They think the doctrine pf the 
eternal misery of the unsaved, in the belief of which 
they have been educated, is necessary to restrain men 
from sin, and to bring them to repentance. We greatly 
respect their pious anxiety for the maintenance of God's 
government, and fully sympathize with them in their 
desire to bring sinners to accept of the salvation offered 
in the Gospel. We also agree with them in holding to 
the truism, that God's Law, like every other law, must 
have a penalty, and one, too, that answers to the offence, 
and that the Gospel will never be anything but foolish- 
ness to those who neither feel nor fear the evils from 
which it would deliver them. It is not that we desire 
to weaken the motives of the Law or of the Gospel, 
that we are opposing this dogma cf immortality in sin 
and suffering, but rather to restore to them the power 
they once had, and are evidently losing under this false 
teaching. It is the advocates of this false doctrine — not 
ourselves- — who are weakening the influence of both the 
Law and Gospel, and bringing them into contempt by 
proclaiming a doctrine which they sincerely hope may 
not be true after all ; and by endeavoring to make sin- 
ners receive it, and act in view of it, when they scarcely 
believe it themselves. Their mistake is, in supposing 
that there can be no doctrine of future punishment but 
that which they have received by tradition from the 
Papal Church; that to deny this, is to deny all future 
jmnishment. They seem to suppose that God has no 
other way of magnifying his holy Law and making it 



Chap. V.] NATURAL AND RATIONAL ARGUMENT. 



91 



honorable, but to threaten all transgressors with eternal 
torment. 

But is there nothing dreadful in the thought of being 
excluded from the kingdom of heaven and all its joys 
forever? — of being counted unfit to live anywhere? — of 
having one's "name blotted out of the Book of Life " ? — ■ 
of being absolutely and forever destroyed from among 
God's creatures, and forgotten by them ? Is there 
nothing terrible in the prospect of a second death, from 
which there is no resurrection? Is there no such thing 
possible under the government of God as capital punish- 
ment? Is this sort of punishment practicable only 
under human government ? And as brutal rulers some- 
times impose additional tortures upon their victims, and 
protract their agonies in dying as long as possible must 
this be the method employed by our Almighty Ruler — 
eternally protracting them — in the case of ail the un- 
saved, that He may give dignity and honor to His Law 
"and government? 

So tyrants have reasoned and practiced, citing the 
Divine Example as their authority for all the fiendish 
tortures they have chosen to inrlict on the victims of 
their wrath, fancying, perhaps, that they were giving 
force and strength to their government.* But this in- 
human practice, with the reasoning that sustained it, so 
far as civil polity is concerned, has had its day. A more 
enlightened and human system of penal jurisprudence 
is taking the place of the old barbarian codes that were 
once in vogue, and is beginning to prevail, everywhere, 

* Burnet quotes " Bloody Mary," the persecuting queen of 
England, who burned alive so many of her best subjects during 
her short reign, as saying, ''As the souls of heretics are here- 
after to be eternally burning in hell, there can be nothing more 
proper than for me to imitate the Divine vengeance by burning 
them on earth." 



92 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



at least throughout the civilized world ; and this, too, 
with manifest advantage to justice and good government. 

But in theology the old theory lingers, the theodicy 
of the dark ages still keej)s its place in the creeds of the 
Christian Church. The Deity must be represented, not 
as simply just, but as infinitely vengeful and cruel. He 
must not withdraw the life He gave from those whom 
He cannot save. He must not even let them perish in 
their own corruption. This would be dangerous leni- 
ency. He must keep them in being forever, and inflict 
upon them perpetual wrath to all eternity. At any rate, 
He must be represented as threatening to do this^ and 
sinners must be made if possible to believe it. And then, 
in order to free Him, somewhat from so foul an asper- 
sion, so that men can love and trust Him, it is vaguely 
hinted, that perhaps, after all, He will not execute these 
threatenings, but that His infinite love will find some 
way, not yet revealed, of rescuing His children from so 
dreadful a doom. Is this the way to magnify the Law of 
God and make it honorable ? Must He be represented as 
more tyrannical and cruel than the worst of pagan gods, 
that men may fear to sin against Him, and then as insin- 
cere and too good to fulfil his threatenings, that men may 
love and trust Him ? Or must we apologize for Him, as 
many do, under the plea that He cannot help Himself; 
for He has made a horde of creatures whom He can 
neither govern, nor destroy, for He made them uncondi- 
tionally indestructible in the outset ; and the best He 
can possibly do is to imprison them and keep them in 
eternal misery ! ! ! 

TTe do not so understand the truth. We sympathize 
most fully with our opponents in the end they would 
secure ; but we believe there is no more effectual way of 
defeating it, than the method they pursue. If there is 



Chap. V.] NATURAL AND RATIONAL ARGUMENT. 



93 



any one doctrine of the Word of God more distinctly 
revealed than another, and one that ought to be preached 
without a peradventure, it is the doctrine of a future 
retribution — of the absolutely remediless, hopeless condi- 
tion of those who persistently reject an offered Saviour- — 
of the eternal and irreversible distinction that will be 
made between the saved and the lost. But the sanctions 
of God's law are sufficiently impressive without any hu- 
man additions. If there be no power in the threat of 
death and everlasting destruction, or in the offer of eter- 
nal life, through a crucified Saviour, to move the heart of 
the sinner, the preacher cannot hope to make them effect- 
ive by any false coloring of his own. He loses vastly more 
than he gains by attempting to exalt the judicial charac- 
ter of God at the expense of His goodness, on the one 
hand, or of His truth, on the other. The sinner must 
believe that God is just, as well as terrible in His judg- 
ment, and that He will be as true to all His threatenings, 
as to His promises. But in order to this, the threat- 
enings must appear to be just. Fear without conviction 
of sin, will never lead to repentance. Men may be 
shocked and horrified by terrible descriptions of the 
ceaseless, hopeless agonies of the lost, till every true sen- 
timent of their moral natures revolts against the mon- 
strous injustice and cruelty of Him whom they are told 
will inflict them. They may be driven to madness, as 
they often are, by such preaching ; but all this has no 
tendency to produce conviction of sin, or penitence, or 
love. Those who have relied the most on this kind of 
preaching and exhortations have not been the most suc- 
cessful in bringing men to embrace the Gospel, nor in 
strengthening the Church of Christ. 

It will be time enough to insist on this style of ha- 
rangue, when it shall be shown to have had any other 



94 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



effect than that of hardening men's hearts, and alienating 
them from the religion that sanctions it. 

Certainty of conviction and punishment is a much 
more important element in the prevention of crime, than 
any threatened severity with the probability of escape. 
There may be a kind of restraint, for a time, exercised 
over low and groveling natures through the use of 
terror; but it soon exhausts itself. Its ultimate effect 
is to degrade, demoralize, and harden the heart. Yea 
with some, it operates as a kind of incentive to lawless- 
ness, under a spirit of bravado. It is found to be a bet- 
ter policy even under human governments, to endeavor 
to control men by appealing to their moral sentiments, to 
make them feel that the penalties of law are just and 
necessary, and that they are not inflicted in hatred, but 
in pity and sorrow ; but, that nevertheless, they will be 
surely inflicted. This is especially true as regards the 
Divine Law that requires the heart of the sinner, as well 
as his external obedience. A religion without confidence 
and love, is little better than no religion. It is a sense of 
God's goodness that leads men to repentance, if they ever 
do repent. They may be made Christians in name — the 
world is full of such — a servile conformity to the out- 
ward forms of religion may be secured by operating on 
their fears, or by presenting selfish considerations, they 
may be somewhat restrained from open acts of sin ; but 
they cannot be made real Christians ; they cannot be 
made truly obedient ; they cannot be made pure and holy 
in this way. 

What now, if men shall outgrow their early fears? 
What if they shall begin to suspect that they have been 
deceived ? that their real danger has been grossly mis- 
represented, in order " to catch them by guile " ? A re- 
action is sure to follow. Both the Law and the Gospel 



Chap. V.] NATURAL AND RATIONAL ARGUMENT. 95 

will fall into contempt, and they will be further from 
hope than before. 

This is just what we are seeing at the present day ; 
and the evil is rapidly increasing. Complaint is made 
that the pulpit is losing its power over the masses ; that 
vital religion is dying out in our Churches; that the Sanc- 
tuary is comparatively deserted ; that our educated men 
are becoming infidels ; that there is a great lack of the 
true missionary spirit in our theological schools ; that 
our young men and women are not offering themselves 
as earnestly as in former times, to carry the Gospel mes- 
sage to the destitute. All this is lamentably true. The 
cause is not far to seek. This false doctrine of the nec- 
essary immortality of all men, even in sin as well as in 
holiness, is, in fact, driving the whole community into a 
skepticism in regard to the future condition of the 
wicked, which threatens to extinguish all religious zeal 
and earnest effort for the salvation of sinners every- 
where. Why should we be greatly concerned for the 
ignorant heathen, if they will probably have a better op- 
portunity to embrace salvation after death? If those 
myriads of millions of human beings are destined to an 
endless existence, as they are said to be, it cannot be 
doubted, that a just and merciful God will provide some 
effectual way of rescuing them, if not here, certainly 
hereafter, from eternal woe. It seems incredible that 
He should foredoom from their birth so large a ]3ortion 
of the human race to endless misery, for the sin of their 
progenitors, or even for their own short-comings, without 
giving them, at least, " a fair chance " to escape, either 
before or after death. It seems incredible that He 
should perpetuate the wretched, worthless existence of 
any creature, however bad he may be, in sin and misery 
without hope and without end in the life beyond. It is 



96 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



incredible. No wonder that thoughtful men under the 
stress of this dogma, and the logical conclusion to which 
it brings them, should seek relief in the hypothesis of 
universal salvation, or at least, of a post-mortem proba- 
tion. But if they would consent to drop their philoso- 
phy, and accept of the simple doctrine of the Scriptures 
- — of immortality only in Christ — they would have no oc- 
casion for such unscriptural hypotheses. 

It is not incredible that God should create a race of 
mortal men ; nor that He should give them only a con- 
ditional immortality, founded on their fitness to enjoy 
it ; nor that He should permit them to become mortal 
through sin, and then offer them Everlasting Life, as a 
gift of grace through a Saviour, conditioned on their 
repentance for sin, and acceptance of Him as their 
Saviour. It is not incredible that He should judge and 
punish all men both from Christian and heathen lands, 
beyond this life, according to their several deserts, some 
with few stripes and others with many stripes ; nor that 
there should be a Second Death, for the unsaved and an 
Eternal Life for his loyal, loving subjects only. 

This is just what God's Word teaches, as we read it. 
And we would fain hope that this may be made evident 
to those who will consent to keep us company, as we 
now turn from these broken cisterns that men have hewed 
out for themselves, to the Everlasting Fountain of truth 
and reverently inquire, "What saith the Scripture?" 



Chap. V.] NATURAL AND RATIONAL ARGUMENT. 



97 



Xote. — The Advocates of the cio:zma of the natural im- 
mortality of man have so commonly asserted that this is, 
and ever has been the general belief of the world, and have 
so confidently founded what they regard as one of their 
strongest arguments in support of it on this general belief, 
that we feel called to notice it more particularly, not that it 
would lend any real strength to their cause, were it true, 
but to show that, so far from being the fact, just the con- 
trary is true: and if an}' argument at all is to be founded on 
the opinion of mankind, it certainly inures to our advantage. 
This is shown by Dr. YThately. whom we have already cited, 
and by Prof. Hudson, in his learned work. The Doctrine of 
a Future Life, and by others. We quote the following from 
a recent English volume entitled The Promise of Life by 
J. F. B. Testing. A.n. 

"The fallacy of this popular argument lies partly in the state- 
ment of fact, and partly in the inference deduced from it. First, 
as to the fact. We readily grant that there is nothing upon 
which men have more speculated than the possibility of a life 
after death—nothing about the fundamental or elementary 
thought of which there has been so general an agreement in all 
times and circumstances. But this admission is very different 
from the assertion referred to. That beings endowed with in- 
tellect, thwarted and interrupted by death, and yet surrounded 
by natural xmenomena suggestive of a life out of death, should 
speculate upon the possibility of a future state would be inevit- 
able, even if no future state were intended for them. To wish to 
live is natural, and the wish is father to the thought. But we 
also recognize the influence of traditional truth in these specula- 
tions. The defaced remnants of a primitive religion have doubt- 
less done as much as the hopes and fears of man to shape his 
expectations of a future. Yet all these influences together have 
never produced that common belief in the immortality of the 
soul which is so confidently asserted. In the days of Socrates — 
in the home and springtime of philosophy — most men accord- 
ing to the great moralist's testimony, believed that at death the 
soul would utterly perish with the body: and his statement was 
confirmed by the fact that in the great plague of Athens, the 
multitude, instead of being moved by religious faith to prepare 
for a future state, plunged into excesses of sensuality as having 
no expectation of anything that could be spared to them by 
death. If this was the case with Greece in the height of her 
5 



98 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



glory, it would be strange indeed if the rest of the world, for 
the most part comparatively thoughtless and barbarous, were 
found to have generally possessed a consciousness of immor- 
tality. 

"In order to estimate rightly the prevailing thought of man- 
kind upon this subject before the introduction, or apart from 
the influence, of Christianity, we must consider the religions 
of the world in three great and natural divisions. The first of 
these consists in the faiths which have been moulded by primi- 
tive tradition; the second, in the offspring of speculation, and 
the third in the effect of revelation. It is impossible to keep 
these divisions quite separate — they overlap and modify one 
another; but this fact need not prevent us from appreciating 
their distinctive characteristics, or observing what tradition, 
philosophy and Judaism had to say respectively to the doctrine 
of the immortality of the soul. 

" Turning our attention first to the great examples of tradition 
— to Chaldea, Egypt and India — we are struck with a common 
feature which is often hastily identified with a belief in immor- 
tality. This is metempsychosis, or the transmigration of souls, 
which Herodotus describes particularly as held by the ancient 
Egyptians, and which is a common tenet of Brahminism and 
Buddhism, and, therefore, of one-half of the modern population 
of the globe. Professor Roth, of Tubingen, even understands 
the Rig Veda, the most sacred of the Shastras of India, to reach 
the annihilation of the wicked. At any rate, there is nothing 
in tbis Eastern doctrine implying the individual immortality of 
the soul. The mental or spiritual part of man was held to be 
an emanation from the Deity, which during a long course of years 
— in the Egyptian mythology, 3000 — will animate many or even all 
kinds of living creatures, and at last will return to, and lose its 
individuality in God, like a drop of water returning to the ocean. 
It has been truly said, i The Orientals are pervaded with a pro- 
found horror of individual existence, and with a profound desire 
for absorption into the infinite Being, i Here is certainly no 
belief in immortality in the sense in which Christians under- 
stand the word. In the systems of India all hope or thought 
respecting individual existence is bounded by the expectation 
of universal convulsions of nature, which take place at immense 
intervals, and in w T hich every created being is doomed to perish. 

" Nor if we examine the mythologies of rude and childlike 



Chap. V.] NATURAL AND kational argument. 



99 



tribes, shall we find traces of a belief in the immortality of the 
soul, while evidence of a contrary belief is by no means uncom- 
mon. That strange confusion of the ideas of survival and im- 
mortality which we have noticed as underlying the arguments 
of Christian philosophers and which shuts up many minds to 
the alternative of no existence or endless existence after death, 
appears but little in the conceptions of uncivilized people. Along 
the coast of Guinea the negroes throw their dead into the sea, 
in order that the soul -may be extinguished soon after the death 
of the body. The inhabitants of the Sandwich and Fiji islands 
believed firmly in survival but expected wicked spirits to be de- 
voured by devils or by human spirits stronger than themselves. 
Druidism in Europe presents an exceptional belief in uncondi- 
tional immortality, but here it is mixed up with the transmigra- 
tion of souls, and with the doctrine of a final universal salvation. 
Zoroastrianism contrasted similarly in Asia with surrounding 
systems. It included the idea of resurrection as well as that of 
immortality. Its declaration respecting the punishment of the 
wicked is as follows : 4 The author of evil shall not exult over 
them forever; their prison-house will soon be thrown open; the 
pangs of three terrible clays and nights, equal to the agonies of 
9000 years, will purify all, even the worst of demons. The 
anguished cry of the damned, as they writhe in the lurid cauld- 
ron of torture will find pity in the soul of Ormuzd.' Thus here 
also immortality is associated with, and seems to have demanded 
a belief in universal salvation. Indeed, it is doubtful whether 
any false religion, except savage Mohamedanism, which is 
neither traditional nor speculative, but an eclectic imposture, 
framed under the influence of corrupted Judaism and Christ- 
ianity, exhibits the idea of the individual immortality of wicked 
men. 

"Let us now glance at the conclusions of speculative philoso- 
phy. The great thinkers of Greece— from Pythagoras to Zeno — 
and their illustrious Eoman disciples were less original in their 
speculations on the nature and destiny of man than they were 
in the ethical or moral laws which they laid down, and the con- 
siderations by which they endeavored to commend them. 

"They were men of vast intellect, culture, and courage, and 
most of them confirmed themselves in their superiority by ex- 
tensive travel and observation of the superstitions or philoso- 
phies of other lands, especially those of Chaldea and Egypt. 



100 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part I. 



They had the sense, too, to adopt what they could not improve, 
and thus Pythagoras received from Egypt, or India, or both, 
the Oriental theory of the divine origin, transmigration and 
final absorption of souls. But neither he nor any who followed 
him — and most of these were content to endorse his conclusions 
on the subject — seem to have conceived the idea of an individ- 
ual immortality. How little like Christian belief were these 
theories of the greatest minds of antiquity will appear from a 
glance at the teaching of Plato the disciple and equal of Socra- 
tes. To him the world was an unimal with a rational soul. 
1 The souls of men were formed from the remainder of the ration- 
al soul of the world which had previously given existence to 
the invisible gods and demons.' Even these fancies, distantly 
related as they were to a definite and reasonable hope of im- 
mortality, seem rarely, if ever, to have amounted to conviction 
in those that held them. Cicero said that while he was reading 
Plato he was convinced of immortality, but that as soon as he 
laid down the book his doubts returned ; and Archbishop Whate- 
ly — no mean judge of the reasoning powers and conclusions of 
others — has left his judgment of these speculations of philosophy 
in the following words : i As to what Plato and afterward Cice- 
ro and others, said in behalf of immortality, no reader of their 
own class seems to have had even any suspicion of their being in 
earnest.' Thus we may safely conclude that the supposed uni- 
versal consciousness of individual immortality finds neither 
proof nor illustration among the master-thinkers of the past. 

"Our inquiry now turns to the possessors of Divine Eevelation 
— the revelation of the Old Testament. What did the Jews be- 
lieve respecting the immortality of the soul ? On this point we 
have from the New Testament the very important information 
that 4 the Sadducees said there was no resurrection, neither angel 
nor spirit.' Thus human consciousness failed, even in connec- 
tion with Moses and the prophets, to demonstrate natural im- 
mortality to the intellectual, aristocratic, and priestly class 
which divided with the Pharisees the religious authority of the 
Jews. But the Pharisees themselves were far from being a com- 
pact body of believers in individual immortality. It is true 
Josephus describes them as such, but his authority has long 
been more than doubtful. We may be content to set against it 
a few decisive quotations. The Rev. S. Cox, a competent author- 
ity, says: 'The Jewish fathers of our Lord's time differed on 



Chap. V.] NATURAL AND RATIONAL ARGUMENT. 



101 



the ultimate issue of the state and punishment in Gehenna. 
Some held that it would issue in the ultimate salvation of all 
who were exposed to it, while others held that it would issue 
in their destruction, the very souls of sinners being burned up 
and scattered by the wind.' Nemesius, a writer of the fifth 
century, implies that the preponderating belief of the Jews was 
the destructibility of the soul. The great Rabbi, Maimonides 
clearly taught this doctrine in the twelfth century, saying: 1 The 
punishment that awaits the wicked man is that he will have no 
part in eternal life, but will die and be utterly destroyed. He 
will not live forever, but for his sins will be cut off and perish 
like a brute;' and Dr. Bentley the great scholar and critic, refers 
to the same belief of annihilation as ' what some of the learned- 
est doctors of the Jews have esteemed the most dreadful of all 
punishments, and have assigned for the portion of the blackest 
criminals of the damned, so interpreting Tophet, Abaddon, the 
•valley of slaughter and the like for final extinction and depriva- 
tion of being.' 

" We are forced by these testimonies to the conclusion that 
among the Jews, as among the idolatrous nations and the phil- 
osophers of the world, we must seek in vain for either an in- 
tuitive or a prevalent belief in individual immortality." 



PART THE SECOND. 



The Question of Human Immortality Considered 
in the Light of Revelation. 



u He that believeth not God hath made him a Liar ; because he 
believeth not the record that God gave of His Son. And this is 
the record; That, God hath given to us Eternal Life ; and this 
Life is in His Son, He that hath the Son hath the Life, and he 
that hath not the Son of God hath not the Life" 

1 John 5: 10-12. 

" I, at first with two fair gifts, 
4i Created him endowed — with happiness 
" And immortality : that fondly lost, 
u This other served but to eternize woe, 
6S Till I provided death." 

Milton's Paradise Lost xi. 57, etc. 



CHAPTER VI. 



LOGOD^DALY, 

We have seen how vague and unsatisfactory are the 
teachings of Nature and Reason on this great question 
of human immortality. It is conceded by all who ac- 
knowledge the Divine Authority of the Scriptures, that 
we must rely mainly, if not entirely, on them to an- 
swer this and other cognate inquiries. Indeed this is 
the special object for which they have been given to us. 

But before proceeding to inquire of these Divine Ora- 
cles, " What saith the Scriptures ? " let us pause for a 
moment and ask ourselves if we are sincerely, and hon- 
estly desirous of knowing what they do say, and willing 
to accept of their teaching on this question, as authori- 
tative and final ? or have we a theory of our own in regard 
to the nature and destiny of man, which we would be 
glad to have confirmed, and which we shall try to sus- 
tain if possible ? Are we willing to take the plain, literal 
words of Scripture on this question, as expressing the 
truth, or must they be warped and twisted to make them 
agree with some preconceived theory of our own ? Or 
must some new meaning be put into them, to make them 
teach what we think they ought to teach ? 

Unless we are willing, however wise we may think our- 
selves, to take the attitude of docile listeners at the feet 
of the Master, and to believe what He says, and believe 
it because He says it, and as He says it, the study of His 
Word, upon this, or any other disputed point, will be of 
little use to us. One may, by the exercise of ingenuity, 
5* 105 



106 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



" accommodate " the Scriptures to a seeming support of 
almost any doctrine he may bring to them. By selecting 
certain pliable passages, and putting a new meaning into 
their crucial words, and by explaining away other pas- 
sages as metaphors, and treating others, as of doubtful 
authority, he may prove from the Bible, to his own satis- 
faction, and perhaps to the satisfaction of others who 
trust him, doctrines to which it actually gives no coun- 
tenance. 

Scholastic ingenuity has shown itself equal to the task 
of defending, from the Scriptures, all the anti-christian and 
abominable errors and practices of the Papal Church. In- 
deed, all the varying and conflicting sects of the present 
time, claim the authority of the Scriptures, in support of 
their peculiar tenets, and can bring forward a formidable 
array of texts in evidence of their truth — if one will only 
accept of the construction they put upon them. 

It is not because our Divine Teacher puts forth the 
truth in a vague and ambiguous way, after the manner 
of the heathen oracles, that men have held such contra- 
dictory notions of it, and have so disagreed as to the es- 
sential doctrines of His Word ; but simply because they 
have brought their own various notions and prejudices and 
prepossessions and philosophies to that Word, and read 
them into it. And if the language itself of their proof 
texts does not exactly express their ideas, it is quite easy 
to give a new turn to any pivotal word, or to say that it 
should be taken in a tropical sense. This is what is 
called Biblical Exegesis or Hermeneutics, in our theologi- 
cal schools. Then these learned theologians, of the various 
schools, must write their commentaries and expositions, 
to tell the unsophisticated just what these texts ought to 
mean, and what they do not mean, and when they are to 
be taken in one sense, and when in another, just the 
opposite. 



Chap. VI.] 



LOGOD^EDALY. 



107 



But what if the Greek and Hebrew words of the Orig- 
inal Scriptures will not bear these new senses they would 
put upon them ? What if these meanings are not to be 
found in their Standard Classical Lexicons? These too 
must be overhauled, and special " Biblical Lexicons 55 pre- 
pared for the use of Bible scholars, with these new 
meanings put upon these words, and the places in the 
Bible particularly referred to, where these words should 
be taken in this new sense ; and this is called the " Scrip- 
tural sense " of these words ! ! 

This is no exaggerated hypothesis. The writer has 
such an improved (?) Lexicon attached to his Greek Tes- 
tament, which he bought when a student of Theology.* 
It was evidently prepared in the interest of the Platonic 
theory of the natural immortality of man, and in sup- 
port of such interpretations of Scripture as this theory 
requires. It may be instructive to give from its pages a 
few specimens of this sort of learned logodmdaly. We 
open the Testament at Matthew 7 : 13, and read as 
follows : 

" Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate, and 
broad is the way that leadeth to destruction (apoleian) and many 
there be which go in thereat; because strait is the gate, and 
narrow is the way which leadeth unto life {zden) and few there 
be that find it." 

We know what " destruction " means in the ordinary 
sense of the word, and what apoleia means in Greek; 
they both mean the same thing. But we want to know 
the " Scriptural sense " of the word. So we turn to 

* " The Polymicrian Geeek Lexicon to the New Testament 
in which the various senses of the words are distinctly ex- 
plained in English, and authorized by references to passages of 
Scripture. By W. Geeenfield, Editor of Bagsters Compre- 
hensive Bible, The Polymicrian Greek Testament, etc." Lon- 
don. 



108 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



our Biblical Greek Lexicon ; and after the various ordi- 
nary definitions are given, we are referred to tins pas- 
sage, and informed that it here means "perdition " 
"misery" etc. We look out the word perdition, in 
Webster's Dictionary, and find that its religious sense is 
" the utter loss of the soul, or of final happiness, in a 
future state." We know also, what the word "life" 
means in English, and what the word zde means in Greek ; 
they both mean the same thing. But that we may find 
out just what the " Scriptural sense" of the word is, 
we again consult our Biblical Lexicon, where its ordinary 
sense is very correctly given ; but we are referred to this 
passage, and told that it here means " eternal happiness" 
Now having got the true " Scriptural " meaning of these 
two crucial words, from this learned lexicographer, we 
know how to understand the passage. It should be 
read thus : 

"Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate and 
broad is the way that leadeth to misery, and many there be 
which go in thereat; because strait is the gate, and narrow is 
the way which leadeth unto eternal happiness, and few there be 
that find it." 

Again, we read in Romans 5 : 12, as follows : 

" Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and 
death {thanatos) by sin; and so death (thanatos) passed upon all 
men, for that all have sinned." 

We know well enough what the ordinary sense of the 
word " death " is, and that it means the same as thanatos 
in Greek, but that we may know what the " Scriptural 
sense " of the word is, we again consult our Biblical 
Lexicon. We find the word correctly defined, so far as 
its ordinary sense is concerned, but we are referred to 
this passage, and told that it here means, " cm unchang- 
ing eternal state of wretchedness and misery" Hence, 



Chap. VI.] 



LOGOD^EDALY. 



109 



we are to understand this passage as though it read as 
follows: 

" Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and 
an unchanging, eternal state of wretchedness and misery by sin, 
and so an unchanging, eternal state of wretchedness and misery 
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." 

Where, we ask, did our Biblical lexicographer get the 
peculiar " Scriptural Sense," which he puts upon the 
pivotal words, in these and other similar texts, bearing 
on this question ? How does he know that the " destruc- 
tion 55 of the wicked does not mean destruction, but only 
misery, and that the "life," which is promised to the 
righteous, is not actual life, but simply " eternal happi- 
ness ;" or that the " death," that is the fruit of sin, is not 
actual death, but on the contrary, is " an unchanging 
eternal state of wretchedness and misery " ? The classical 
writings of the Greeks, in the time of our Lord, and 
when the Scriptures were written, do not justify any such 
sense as the lexicographer puts into these ^reek words. 
What authority has he then, for putting this sense into 
them in his Biblical Greek Lexicon ? None whatever, 
unless it be the authority of his cotemporaries and pred- 
ecessors, of the same school of philosophy, whose lead 
he has followed. They all have evidently, first read these 
meanings into these words, to make them accord with 
their own philosophy, and then have transferred them to 
their lexicons to justify their reading.* 

The Greek word psuche, with its Hebrew analogue 
nephesh) usually translated "soul," "life," etc., is treated 

*Prof. Cremer, in his Lexicon of the New Testament, while 
asserting that in Scripture these terms {apollumi, etc.). stand 
for the eternal misery of mankind, frankly allows that "such 
a signification is peculiar to the New Testament, and without an- 
alogy in classical Greek "11 Life in Christ, page 361. 



110 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



in the same way. Under psuche in my Biblical Greek 
Lexicon, various texts of Scripture are referred to, where 
the word is said to mean, " that in us which thinks, feels, 
wills, and renders us immortal" This may represent 
well enough the meaning which is given to the word 
" soul," in English, by those who hold to the philosophy 
of Plato. Webster, in the earlier editions of his great 
dictionary — though this has been eliminated from the 
later editions — defines " soul " as " the spiritual, rational 
and immortal principle in man," as though he would 
effectually stop all inquiry as to its immortality, by mak- 
ing it enter into the definition of the word itself ; and 
then, as if to close the door of the Christian Church 
against all who do not accept of his philosophy, he gra- 
tuitously adds: "The immortality of the soul is a fun- 
damental article of the Christian system " ! ! But 
neither this word psuche nor its analogue nephesh, has 
any such high signification in the Scriptures. They 
simply designate that principle of life, which is common 
to man and # to beast ; and are so used very commonly 
throughout the Bible. They are frequently used to indi- 
cate personality, — as so many souls or persons, — but 
never, in that high Platonic sense, in which the word 
" soul " is now understood. We can say with confidence, 
that not one single passage can be found in all the Bible, 
in which any natural immortality of the nephesh or the 
psuche is asserted, or even hinted at, or implied ; nor 
can this idea be put into them, without doing violence to 
the text. And our Biblical lexicographers have no au- 
thority whatever for endeavoring to fasten this anti- 
christian doctrine upon these Scriptural words. 

Numerous other passages are referred to in the same 
way by this Lexicographer. Guided by him, we are to 
read as follows : 



Chap. VI.] LOGOD^EDALY. Ill 

John 11: 25. "I am the Kesurrection and the (zoe) Hap- 
piness." 

John 6: 53, 54. " Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, 
and drink His blood, ye have no (zoe) happiness in yon. Who- 
so eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal {zoe) 
happiness, and I will raise him up at the last day." 

But this method of giving another sense to these Scrip- 
ture utterances is not peculiar to this author. Robinson, 
in his Lexicon of the New Testament pursues the same 
method. Under zde^ after first giving its true classical 
and ordinary meaning as " life, existence as opposed to 
death and non-existence," he brings to it another meaning 
to make it accord with the theory of the natural and neces- 
sary immortality of all men, which he calls the " Christian 
sense." This is " a happy life, welfare, happiness." 
And he puts this meaning into such passages as he pleases 
and refers the reader to them, that he may know just how 
they are to be sophisticated. Let us turn to a few of 
these texts and see how they are to be read according to 
his Lexicon. 

1 Tim. 4:8. " Godliness is profitable unto all things having the 
promise of the (zoe) happiness that now is, and of that which is 
to come." 

Eom. 5: 17, 18. "For if by one man's offence (thanatos) death 
reigned by one ; much more, they which receive abundance of 
grace, and of the gift of righteousness, shall reign in (zoe) hap- 
piness by one Jesus Christ. Therefore as by the offence of one, 
judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the 
righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justi- 
fication of [zoe] happiness." 

Here it will be seen, as elsewhere so often in the Scrip- 
tures, zoe, life, is contrasted with thanatos, death, and to 
render it "happiness" destroys the contrast, unless thana- 
tos be translated " misery." And this is what we are 
taught to do. And this is just what makes the writings 
of Paul such a puzzle to all who follow the lead of these 



112 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part H. 



teachers, and so difficult of explanation by all these 

commentators. 

1 John 5: 11, 12. " This is the record that God hath given 

to us eternal (zoe) happiness, and this happiness is in His Son. 
He that hath the Son hath the happiness, and he that hath not 
the Son, hath not the happiness " 

But are we not elsewhere assured that the Son hath 
Immortality, Self -existence, Eternal Life in Himself ; and 
is not this the zoe. Life, which Lie imparts to all believers ? 
This is indeed something more than happiness. It is 
Life, a life that includes every blessing that makes life 
desirable and blessed. Why not change the meaning of 
this word in numerous other places and read, " We know 
that we have passed from (thanatos) death unto happi- 
ness"; "The Tree of happiness"; " The water of hap- 
piness "/ " The Book of happiness" etc. ? Surely we 
shall do better to deal honestly with the language of in- 
spiration, and acknowledge Jesus Christ to be the Source, 
not merely of happiness, as He is, but also of Eternal 
Life, as He Himself declares, and receive it as the Gift 
of God's grace from Him. 

We would not question the honesty of these lexicog- 
raphers, and Biblical commentators and expositors and 
theological professors. Many of them we have learned 
to love and respect from personal acquaintance, as very 
worthy Christian men. No doubt they are sincerely 
endeavoring to give to others what they believe to be 
the real meaning of God's Word, as they have received 
it from their teachers, and predecessors, — and they, by 
tradition from theirs. It is more the fault of the system, 
than of individuals. This practice has come in gradu- 
ally, with the philosophy that requires it, and has been 
handed down with it from generation to generation, as 
the only way of bringing the Word of God into agree- 



Chap. VI.] 



LOGODiEDALY, 



113 



ment with that philosophy, which if taken literally, it 
actually contradicts. It has been so thoroughly incor- 
porated into our theological systems, and so firmly estab- 
lished, by the practice of ages, that these learned men 
think it is just the thing for them to do, to put an 
ethical or figurative sense upon all those words, which 
declare death to be the penalty of sin, and life, eternal 
life, the portion only of those who are saved. And the 
confiding, humble disciple, anxious, to know just what 
the Scriptures teach, instead of reading them, as he 
would any other book, must needs supply himself with 
these helps, that he may know when he is to understand 
these words in their plain obvious sense, and when in an 
ethical, or tropical or a peculiar sense. In this way he 
qualifies himself to teach his congregation or his class in 
the Sabbath school, or his children, or others whom he is 
called to instruct in the things of religion. 

No other reason can be given— there is no other rea- 
son — why the plain, simple word maveth, — thanatos, — 
death, whether in the Hebrew, Greek or English should 
not be taken to mean actual, literal death when man is 
spoken of in the Scriptures, as it is when any other liv- 
ing creature or thing is spoken of — but just this — the 
Platonic philosophy, which has been taken into our 
Christian system, as one of its fundamental principles, 
and which must be read into the Scriptures, forbids it. 

The same may be said of the word chai (Heb.), zde 
(Greek), Life. But with respect to this latter word 
" life," the unlearned reader labors under this further dis- 
advantage, that there are two words both in the original 
Greek and Hebrew Scriptures that are rendered by our 
one English word " life," and they are quite distinct from 
each other — The word nephesh (Hebrew) or psuche 
(Greek) which is sometimes rendered " life," and some- 



114 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



times " soul " always refers to that transitory principle of 
life, which man has in common with all other earthly 
creatures, and the Hebrew adjective olam or the Greek 
adjective aidnios signifying eternal, everlasting, etc., 
are never, never joined with it. But whenever that 
higher life, which Christ Himself possesses and which 
He gives to His people, — that life, which is received in 
the new birth, that spiritual life which is pure and eter- 
nal, — is spoken of, the word zoe is always used, and the 
adjective aidnios eternal is constantly coupled with it; 
Also in the Old Testament, so far as this new life is re- 
vealed, the word chai is employed, and to this the adjec- 
tive olam everlasting is joined. No Bible scholar, who 
is acquainted with these languages has any excuse for 
failing to note these distinctions. 

That these, and other words are never employed in a 
figurative sense in the Scriptures, no one pretends to 
assert. The Bible abounds in figures of speech. These 
constitute one of its principal charms in a literary point 
of view. But these figures are self-interpreting. At 
any rate, they are not such as to mislead and to contra- 
dict its sober, didactic teaching. When the Prophet 
speaks of the trees clapping their hands, or when Christ 
calls Herod a fox, no one need misunderstand what is 
meant. But the teaching of God's Word is not all of 
this sort. There is a great deal of plain, practical, com- 
mon sense instruction in it, adapted to the comprehen- 
sion of the simplest minds. Surely, in His annunciation 
of His Holy law and its sanctions of life and death, we 
may expect our Sovei^eign to use such plain literal lan- 
guage as will not be misunderstood— that cannot be, 
unless it is violently perverted. No human ruler would 
be justified in giving to his subjects a law couched in 
ambiguous terms. Nor has our Divine Lawgiver done 



Chap. VI.] 



LOGODJSDALY. 



115 



this.* It is only the perversity of man that would make 
the threat enings and promises of His Holy Word seem 
to teach something different from what the words them- 
selves assert. 

The Hebrew people before the coming of Christ had 
been led into this same vicious practice of explaining 
away the Scriptures, their Rabbins and doctors of the 
law had prepared for them the Talmud and Targums con- 
taining, together with the Divine Word, the explications 
and comments and traditions of their wise men ; and the 
people had been taught to look to these, rather than to 
the Word itself, for their instruction in the things of re- 
ligion. Our Lord rebuked them in His day, telling them 
that they had made the Word of God of none effect by 
their traditions. " In vain," says He " do they worship 
Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men ; " 
and He would say the same of the practice as it now 
prevails. 

Here is the only real difficulty we encounter in discuss- 
ing this question with those who differ from us, It is 
quite evident that if the declarations of the Word of God 
are to be taken, in their literal and ordinary sense, the 
doctrine for which we contend is established beyond all 
dispute. It abounds in passages which declare in the 
most positive manner that " the soul that sinneth it shall 
die" " Sin when it is finished bringeth forth death" 
" The wicked is reserved for the day of destruction" 
" Whose end is destruction ; " " Who shall be punished 
with everlasting destruction ; " " They shall be destroyed 
forever;" " They shall utterly perish in their own cor- 
ruption ; 55 And others, which promise to the righteous 

* "It seems a strange way of understanding a law which re- 
quires the plainest words, that by ' Death,' should be meant 
eternal life in misery." John Locke. 

I 



116 



THE UXSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



"length of days forever and ever," that to those, "who 
by patient continuance in well doing, seek for glory and 
honor," God will give " immortality" ; " My sheep hear 
my voice and I know them, and they follow me; and I 
give unto them Eternal Life ; and they shall never per- 
ish, neither shall any one pluck them out of my hand " ; 
" Verily, verily I say unto you, if any man keep my say- 
ing he shall never see death " etc., etc. And still other 
passages, that contrast the final end of these two classes, 
as follows: "-The wages of sin is death, but the gift of 
God is Eternal Life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." 
" For God so loved the world, that He gave His only be- 
gotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not 
perish, but have Eternal Life." " This is the record that 
God hath given us Eternal Life, and this Life is in His 
Son; He that hath the Son hath the Life, and he that 
hath not the Son hath not the Life," etc., etc. 

What if we take these passages with a multitude of 
others equally explicit, and set them in long array before 
the eyes of the reader? They will have no convincing 
force whatever, on the minds of those who have been 
taught to believe that the wicked cannot actually die, 
cannot utterly perish; cannot be completely destroyed 
forever, and that "length of days forever and ever," 
"immortality " or eternal existence is not the peculiar 
lot of the saved, but is the natural and inalienable inher- 
itance of all men, whether saved or not. They are so 
thoroughly inured to the practice of putting a meta- 
phorical or ethical or poetical sense on these expressions 
which they have learned to call the Scriptural sense, 
whenever they conflict with the popular sentiment of 
the world, in regard to the indestructible nature of man, 
that this seems to them, to be the real teaching of Scrip- 
ture, and they look with suspicion upon any one who 



Chap. VI.] 



LOGOD^EDALY. 



117 



ventures to, think that they should be understood as 
meaning actually and literally what they say. # 

We solemnly protest, in the name of Truth and of 
Him whose Word is Truth, against such unwarranted 
treatment of the Scriptures, as subversive of all true 
doctrine. " If the foundations be destroyed what can 
the righteous do ? " If men are to be allowed, without 
rebuke, to bring their own notions or opinions or poetical 
fancies or philosophies or dogmas, however popular they 
may be — to the Word of God and to read them into it, 
and to "accommodate " its language to them, by putting 
extraordinary meanings into its simple terms, we have 
no standard of Divine truth, no defence against error 
of any sort, no credible authority for any doctrine what- 
ever.! We are liable to be "tossed to and fro and 

* " Why did not a host of texts open their eyes and show 
them their mistake? In reply we ask, why does a straight 
stick put into the water look crooked? And why will no argu- 
ments make it look straight? Simply because it is seen 
through a distorting medium. So men search the Scriptures 
forever, with a pre-established belief in their own indestructi- 
bility and they will be only more and more confirmed in their 
belief of eternal evil. The longer they look at the stick, the 
more certain they will become that it is crooked. This ac- 
counts for the otherwise perplexing fact, that some of the most 
determined advocates of this doctrine are men who have stud- 
ied the Bible all their lives, and in many points have the deep- 
est understanding of it. It also accounts for the rapidity and 
thoroughness with which many persons change their views as 
soon as their eyes are opened to see the fundamental fallacy 
that underlies them. The moment the stick is taken out of 
the water, it appears perfectly straight." Glory of Christ. 

S. MlNTON. 

t " It is always safe to trust the poets [!] not much moral 
truth has got into the world except through them ? ' [!] On the 
Threshold, Lecture to Young Men. T. T. Mungee. This is 
what one of the popular religious teachers of the present day 



118 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



carried about with every wind of doctrine, and by the 
sleight of men, and cunning craftiness whereby they lie 
.in wait to deceive." We might as well, yea better, 
throw aside the so-called "Word of God," and every 
man adopt that scheme of doctrine which pleases him 
best. It is but solemn mockery to prate about the 
" Sacred Scriptures," and to talk of their " inspiration," 
and to call them " The Oracles of God," if they are not 
to be allowed to speak for themselves, and are not to be 
accepted as meaning what they say. It is bad enough to 
bribe a human witness to testify falsely ; but how shall 
we characterize the crime of extorting a false testimony 
from the Divine Word and claiming it in behalf of errors 
it denounces ? 

" Behold I am against the prophets, saitli the Lord, that use 
their tongues, and say 6 He saith, 9 Behold I am against them 
that prophesy false dreams, and do cause my people to err by 
their lies and by their lightness. They speak a vision out of 
their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord. 

"The prophet that hath a dream., let him tell a dream, and he 
that hath my Word, let him speak my Word faithfully." 

Let him speak my word faithfully. This is what we 
propose to do. And unless some better reason shall be 
given for discrediting the testimony of Scripture on this 
question of Immortality, than the assurance of the great 
Deceiver "Ye shall not die," or the philosophy of Plato 
which endorses it, or the teaching of an apostate Church, 
which has made it one of the fundamental principles of 
her faith, or the popular tradition of the present day, 

says. But we would fain believe that some moral truth has 
got into the world through the Sacred Scriptures, and that it is 
quite as safe to learn of Him who is called The Light of Men, 
and to believe what He says in respect to the future life — yea, 
infinitely more safe when we see how flatly they contradict 
Him. 



Chap. VI.] 



LOGOD^EDALY. 



119 



which makes it heresy to call it in question, we shall ven- 
ture to understand the words of Jehovah as spoken by 
Himself, and by His prophets and apostles and by Jesus 
Christ our Saviour, as meaning just what they say. " The 
wages of Si?i is death, but the gift of God is eternal 
ltfe through Jesus Christ our Lord." 

That this is the explicit and uniform teaching of Scrip- 
ture from Genesis to Revelations, if its language is to be 
taken as meaning what it exjxresses, we hope to make evi- 
dent to every inquirer who will take the trouble to ex- 
amine the array of passages we shall cite — But if its lan- 
guage is not to be so taken, then it is useless to attempt 
to prove anything by the testimony of Scripture* 



120 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



Note. — The late Archbishop Whately, renowned alike for 
his piety, learning and logical powers, has stated the Scriptural 
arguments on both sides of this question with such clearness 
and candor in his Lectures on the Future State, that we cannot 
forbear to quote, somewhat at length, a portion of his Eighth 
Lecture. The fact that he reviews the question not as a parti- 
san nor even as an advocate of any view, but rather as a cau- 
tious discriminating judge must surely entitle his opinion to 
the respectful consideration of every sincere inquirer. 

" The Scriptures do not, I think, afford us any ground for 
expecting that those who shall be condemned at the last day as 
having wilfully rejected or rebelled against their Lord, will 
be finally delivered : that their doom, and that of the evil an- 
gels, will ever be reversed. 1 

" What that doom will be. — whether the terms in which it is 
commonly spoken of in Scripture. 4 death.' 1 destruction,' ' per- 
ishing,' etc., are tc be understood figuratively, as denoting 
immortal life in a state of misery, or more literally, as denoting 
a final extinction of existence. — this is quite a diiferent ques- 
tion. It is certain that the words, * life,' 1 eternal life.' * iinaior- 
tality,' etc* are always applied to the condition of those, and 
of those only, who shall at the last day be approved as ' good 
and faithful servants,' who are to 1 enter into the joy of their 
Lord.' 

" ' Life,' as applied to their condition, is usually understood to 
mean "happy life' And that theirs will be a happy life, we 
are indeed plainly taught: but I do not think we are anywhere 
taught that the word * life ' does of itself necessarily imply hap- 
piness. If so, indeed, it would be a mere tautology to speak of 
a ' happy life ' ; and a contradiction to speak of a ' miserable 
life; ' which we know is not the case, according to the usage of 
any language. In all ages and countries, 'life,' and the words 
answering to it in other languages, have always been applied, 
in ordinary discourse, to a wretched life, no less properly than 
to a happy one. Life, therefore, in the received sense of the 
word, would apply equally to the condition of the blest and of 
the condemned, supposing these last to be destined to continue 
for ever, living in a state of misery. And yet, to their condi- 
tion the words 'life' and 'immortality,' never are applied in 
Scripture. If, therefore, we suppose the hearers of Jesus and 
His Apostles to have understood, as nearly as possible in the 
ordinary sense, the words employed, they must naturally have 
conceived them to mean (if they were taught nothing to the 
contrary) that the condemned were really and literally to be 
'destroyed,' and cease to exist; not that they were to exist for 
ever in a state of wretchedness. For they are never spoken of as 
being kept alive, but as forfeiting life; as, for instance, ' Ye will 
not come unto Me that ye might have life:' 'He that hath the 

*See John xx. 31; v. 29; xi. 25; 1 Pet. iii. 7; 1 Cor. ii. 15, 16. 



Chap. VI.] 



LOGOD JEDALY. 



121 



Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not 
life.' And again, 'perdition,' 'death,' 4 destruction,' are em- 
ployed in numerous passages to express the doom of the con- 
demned. All which expressions would, as I have said, be 
naturally taken in their usual and obvious sense, if nothing 
were taught to the contrary. 

'"That these expressions however are to be understood not 
in their ordinary sense, but figuratively, to signify an immor- 
tality of suffering, is inferred by a large proportion of Christ- 
ians, from some other passages; as, where our Lord speaks of 
'everlasting punishment,' " everlasting fire,' and of being 'cast 
into hell, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not 
quenched.' 

" This last expression of His is taken from the book of the 
prophet Isaiah (lxvi. 21), who speaks of "the carcasses of the 
men that have transgressed, whose worm shall not die, neither 
shall their fire be quenched ; and they shall be an abhorring unto 
all flesh ' ; describing evidently the kind of doom inflicted by 
the eastern nations on the vilest offenders, who were not only 
slain, but their bodies deprived of the rites of burial, and either 
burned to ashes (which among them was considered a great 
indignity), or left to moulder above ground, and be devoured 
by worms. 

'•'From such passages as these it has been inferred that the 
sufferings, and consequently the life, of the condemned, is 
never to have an end. And the expressions will certainly bear 
that sense; which would, perhaps, be their most obvious and 
natural meaning, if these expressions were the only ones on the 
subject that are to be found in Scripture. But they will also 
bear another sense; which if not more probable in itself, is cer- 
tainly more reconcilable with the ordinary meaning of the 
words 'destruction,' etc., which so often occur. The expres- 
sions of 'eternal punishment.' 'unquenchable tire,' etc., may 
mean merely that there is to be no deliverance — no revival— no 
restoration — of the condemned. ' Death.' simply, does not shut 
out the hope of being brought to life again: 'eternal death' 
does. Tire' may be quenched before it has entirely consumed 
what it is burning ; ' unquenchable fire ' would seem most nat- 
urally to mean that which destroys it utterly. 

''It may be said, indeed, that supposing man's soul to be an 
immaterial being, it cannot be consumed and destroyed by lit- 
eral material fire or worms. That is true; but no mo l e can it 
suffer from these. We all know that no fire, literally so called, 
can give us any pain unless it reach our bodies. The ' fire,' 
therefore, and the 'worm,' that are spoken of, must, at any 
rate, it would seem, be something figuratively so called :— some- 
thing that is to the soul, what worms and fire are to a body. 
And as the effect of worms or fire is not to preserve the body 
they prey upon, but consume, destroy, and put an end to 
it, it would follow, if the correspondence hold good, that the 
lire, figuratively so called, which is prepared for the condemned, 

(J 



122 



THE UXSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



is something that is really to destroy and put an end to th®m ; 
and is called 4 everlasting ' or 4 unquenchable ' fire, to denote 
that they are not to be saved from it, but that their suffering is 
to he final. So in the parable of the tares, our Lord describes 
Himself as saying, 4 Gather ye first the tares, and bind them in 
bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my garner 7 ; 
as if to denote that the one is to be (as we know is the practice 
of the husbandman) carefully preserved, and the other com- 
pletely put an end to. 

44 We must not indeed venture to conclude at once, from our 
conviction of the divine goodness and power, that evil will ever 
cease to exist; since we know not how to explain the existence 
of any evil at all. We can only say there is some unknown 
cause for it; and that it is a foolish presumption to think of 
assigning a limit to the effects of an unknown cause, except 
where revelation guides us. But when we are told that Christ 
is to 4 reign till He shall put all things under His feet,' and that 
4 the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death this does af- 
ford some ground for expecting the ultimate extinction of evil 
and of suffering, by the total destruction of such as are incapa- 
ble of good and of happiness. If 4 eternal death' means final 
death, — death without any revival,— we can understand what is 
meant by Death being the last enemy destroyed, viz. : that none 
henceforth are to be subjected to it. But if 4 death' be under- 
stood to mean everlasting life in misery, then, it would appear 
that death is never to be destroyed at all; since, although no 
one would be henceforth sentenced, to it, it would still be going 
on as a continual infliction, for ever. 

44 On the whole, therefore, I think we are not warranted in 
concluding (as some have done) so positively concerning this 
question as to make it a point of Christian faith to interpret 
figuratively and not literally the * death' and 'destruction' 
spoken of in Scripture as the doom of the condemned ; and to 
insist on the belief that they are to be kept alive for ever."— 
44 Scripture Hevelations of a Future State J > 



CHAPTER VII. 



The Cbeation of Man. 

In the first three chapters of the Bible, we have, what 
purports to be, a true account of the creation of man, 
his temptation and fall, and the consequent forfeiture, by 
sin, for himself and his posterity, of life, the perpetuity 
of which, was conditioned on perfect obedience to his 
Maker. 

The historical verity of this account is largely ques- 
tioned, at the present day. " In some scientific circles, 
in which Christian faith has no place, this narrative is 
now regarded as one of many similar fables of the early 
world, — the truth being that there was no first man, and 
no fall of man, but a gradual rise from the animal level 
up to humanity, through the ages of an immeasurably 
distant past. In other scientific and theological circles, 
where Christian faith still maintains its hold on Revela- 
tion in general, the narrative is regarded as an alle- 
gory wholly destitute of historical reality, but setting 
forth in pictorial form the early struggles of man with 
the lower forces of nature, and the ascension of the 
spirit through discipline and temptations to the heights 
of faith in God. Among Christian believers of this class, 
it is now boldly affirmed that it is impossible to attach 
any historical value to the idea of the ruin of the world 
by the common ancestor of the race." # 

* Genesis the Third, History not Fable. Eev. E. White, 
London. 

123 



124 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



* While it is not to be supposed that a majority of 
Christian scholars would willingly allow themselves to 
be included in this latter class, it is quite evident that 
the narrative is very generally accepted — if accepted at 
all, — with an incredulous smile, which indicates the very 
feeble hold it has upon their confidence. 

It is not our purpose here to notice the various ob- 
jections that are urged against it, nor the various hy- 
potheses that have been offered in its place, nor even to 
enter into any argument in its favor. We cannot make 
room for such matters in this brief volume. It must 
suffice for our purpose to say, that it is a portion, and an 
important and integral portion of the Scriptures, which 
we receive as the Word of God. It is given to us in 
the form of a true narrative of facts, without one hint 
that it is to be taken in any other sense. It is referred 
to in other parts of the Bible, and by our Lord Himself, 
as a true narrative. St. Paul assumes its truth as the 
basis of his argument, in his Epistles to the Romans 
and the Corinthians, on the very question we have in 
hand. And we shall venture to do the same. It will 
be time enough for us to reject it for some other theory 
of the genesis of man, and the entrance of sin, with all 
its sad fruits of sorrow and death into our world, when 
our wise men shall be able to present us with one upon 
which they themselves can agree, or which has any bet- 
ter claim to our faith. It is to those who acknowledge, 
with us, the Divine authority of the Scriptures, and of 
this narrative as a part of them, that our Scriptural Ar- 
gument concerning the transitory nature of sinful man 
and his immortality only through redemption by Christ 
is especially addressed, with the hope that it will seem to 
them, as it does to us, impregnable. As for others, 
there is a previous question for them to settle before we 



Chap. VII.] THE CREATION OF MAN. 



125 



can hope to influence their mind even though • they 
should consent to listen to us. 

It will be understood that it is the creation, — not of 
this earth, nor of the lower races of animals but — of 
man that concerns us in this inquiry. Whatever may 
have been the process, and however long may have been 
the time taken to bring this world, with all its furniture 
of life and beauty to completion, it was not till every- 
thing had been made ready for his occupancy and use 
that God created man, the highest, and noblest, as wel] 
as the last of all earthly creatures. 

He created him " in His own image and after His own 
likeness," not as equal to Himself in any. of the attri- 
butes of His infinite nature, certainly not in his chiefest 
and most peculiar attribute of independent existence.* 
For this would have been impossible, even for God Him- 
self. Man, in being made in the image of God and after 
His own likeness, w T as made neither omnipotent nor om- 
niscient, nor omnipresent, nor self-existent "and eternal in 
his being. But he was endowed with, a free will, and the 
power of intelligent action, and authority to exercise do- 
minion within the earthly sphere where he was placed, 

*"If it be urged that because there had been imprinted 
upon Adam at his creation the image of his Maker, therefore 
he could not die, it is enough to answer that the dewdrop 
shows the image of the sun only so long as it quivers uncon- 
sumed; presently the burning heat scorches the drop into 
vapor, and the image flies. Indeed, it seems to be the very 
nature of images that they should be perishable unless care is 
taken to keep them in existence. The image on the sensitive 
plate of the photographer will prove as transient as it is beau- 
tiful, if it be not presently plunged in the 6 fixing-bath,' which 
gives it permanence. Man made to reflect the image of Him 
that created him, ceased perfectly to do so the moment the 
cloud of selfishness came between him and the Sun." Condi- 
tional Immortality, Sermon YL, by Wm. R. Huntington, d.d. 



126 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part II. 



and with the faculty of knowing, loving and consciously 
obeying His Maker. In all this, as well as in the beauty 
and perfection of his body, he was superior to all other 
creatures of earth. Some have supposed that his physi- 
cal form was modeled after that which was peculiar to 
the Eternal Son of God, before His manifestations to the 
world. But still he was amenable to the law of his Cre- 
ator, and as dependent on His will for the continuance of 
his life and all that he possessed, as he was for his origi- 
nal endowments. 

By what process the inferior animals were brought 
into existence, we know nothing beyond the fact that 
God created them. Nor are we here called to notice the 
various scientific speculations on this subject. But we 
have a more particular account of the creation of man, 
as we might expect. But still, the record is very brief ; 
and many questions are left for conjecture on our part, 
which, within certain limits, may be indulged, provided 
the record itself be not impeached. 

The sacred historian informs us that : 

" The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and 
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (neshamah chaiyim 
the breath of lives), and man became a living soul {nephesh 
cliaiyah)" 

In this summary passage there are several points to 
be noticed : 

1. The materials from which man was made were not 
extra mundane, or superior, in any respect, to those that 
entered into the composition of other earthly creatures 
and things. They were the same — "the dust of the 
earth." 

2. Man was fully made and completed, and, as it 
appears, in the maturity of his bodily form, before he 
began to live. " God formed man out of the dust of the 
ground." 



Chap. VII.] THE CREATION OF MAN. 



127 



3. Nothing is now wanting to make him a living man 
or " a living soul," but the " breath of life," and when 
God breathed this into him, he because a living soul. 
The words here translated, " breath of life," are nesha- 
mah chaiyim. Neshamah means breath, or the vital air 
we breathe in common with all animals. It seems to be 
nearly, if not quite, synonomous with the word ruach, 
which is more frequently employed to express the same 
idea. Chaiyim is the plural of the word chai or chai- 
yah) meaning "life." The expression " God breathed " 
this vital air " into his nostrils," is of course anthropo- 
morphic, that is, a representation of God acting like a 
man. We are not to suppose that God actually breathes 
as do men and animals of flesh and blood, He is a Spirit, 
He existed before the air was created, and is dependent 
on nothing for the support of His life. But He is rep- 
resented anthropomorphical ly to us in the Scriptures, to 
bring His acts within our comprehension. There ap- 
pears to be nothing peculiar to man in the fact of the 
communication of this breath of life to him. For the 
brutes themselves are represented as having the breath 
of life in their nostrils also ; as in Gen. 7 : 22, where the 
same words, with still greater emphasis, by the addition 
of riiach, are employed as follows : " All in whose nos- 
trils was the breath of life {neshamah ruach chaiyim^ 
the breath of the spirit of lives) — died." 

4. The phrase nephesh chaiyah^ translated in this pas- 
sage, "living soul," certainly designates nothing peculiar 
to man, for it is equally applicable to the brute. This 
identical expression is employed ten times in the book of 
Genesis, and twice in Leviticus, and in every instance 
but this, it is used with reference to brute animals ; but 
this fact is not apparent to the unlearned reader, because 
our translators have only in this instance rendered it 



128 THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part II, 

"living soul." In all the other instances when the lower 
animals are characterized by this phrase, they have ren- 
dered it " living creature," or " living thing " or " life " ! 
On this passage Rev. J. Pye Smith says : 

" Some of our readers may be surprised at our having 
translated nephesh chaiyah by "living animal." There 
are good interpreters and preachers, who, confiding in 
the common translation " living soul," have maintained 
that here is intimated the distinctive pre-eminence of 
man above the inferior animals, as possessed of an imma- 
terial and immortal spirit. . . . TTe should be acting 
unfaithfully if we were to affirm its being contained or 
implied in this passage." 

Dean Alford in his comment on it says : 

"The description is not one bringing out any distinc- 
tive attribute of man, but simply one describing the ani- 
mation of the form shaped out of the dust of the earth, 
whereby he became what, in Chapter L, the various 
tribes of created things are described as being, a living 
being. The difference, whatever it may be between him 
and other living creatures, is not declared in this term." 

In Dr. Lange's commentary under 1 Cor. 15 ; 45, it 

is said : 

" The expression ' living soul, 5 as used in Gen., is 
often taken to indicate an order of being superior to the 
brute., and is the text of many an argument to prove 
the immortality of the soul. The incorrectness of this 
assumption will be readily seen by referring to Gen. 
1 : 20, 21, 24, and elsewhere, in which passages the 
words translated 1 living soul '■ are applied also to the 
entire lower creation. They are used indifferently of 
man and beast to express animal life in general. And it 
is in this very light the Apostle uses them, as the course 
of his argument shows. Adam is spoken of as a living 
soul, not to prove his immortality, but rather his mor- 
tality." 

5. Observe, God does not bring a living soul and put 
it into this lifeless body, nor does He even make a living 



Chap. VII.] THE CREATION OF MAN. 



129 



soul within his body as something distinct from it ; 
but by the impartation of this breath of life, Adam 
becomes a living soul. This describes the whole man as 
one integer.* 

On this point Milton in his Treatise on Christian Doc- 
trine, Vol. L, page 250, well remarks : 

64 It may be inferred, unless we had rather take the 
heathen writers for our teachers respecting the nature of 
the soul, that man is a living being intrinsically and prop- 
erly one and individual not compounded or separable, 
not — according to the common opinion — made up and 
formed of two distinct and separate natures as of soul 
and body ; but that the whole man is soul, and the soul 
man ; that is to say, a body or substance, individual, an- 
imated, sensitive and rational ; and that the breath of life 
was neither a part of the Divine essence, nor the soul 
itself, but as it were, the inspiration of some Divine 
virtue fitted for the exercise of life and reason, and in- 
fused into the organic body ; for man himself, the whole 
man, when finally created, is called in express terms, 4 a 
living soul.' Hence the word used in Gen. to signify 
soul is interpreted by the Apostle, 1 Cor. 15 : 45, animal." 

The metaphysical sense in which this word soul is now 
used to describe a spiritual essence distinct from the 
body, is utterly unknown to the Scriptures, as we have 
before remarked. It is derived from our "heathen 
teachers," as Milton well says, and not from the inspired 
writers of the Scriptures. This Hebrew word nephesh 
(with its Greek equivalent psuche and its Latin repre- 
sentative anima, from which our word animal comes), 
denotes animal life or animal breath in contradistinction 
to that higher life, of which we shall have occasion to 
speak hereafter, which is given in the new birth ; and 

*The reader is referred to the author's Essay on the Unity of 
Man, in his larger volume The Life Everlasting, for a full dis- 
cussion of this question. 
6* 



130 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part II. 



then, by metonymy, the animal itself, whether man or 
beast, that lives by breathing ; it includes the whole 
person, as does the personal pronoun for which it is 
often used. When qualified by the adjective living, 
that person is " a living soul " or person, and when qual- 
ified by the adjective dead, as it is at least half a dozen 
times in the Scriptures, that person is " a dead soul." 
Here it should be observed that the word soul in En^- 
lish, under the influence of this heathen teaching, has 
come to be understood as nearly, if not quite, synony- 
mous with spirit. The two words are so defined in our 
dictionaries. But in the Scriptures they are quite dis- 
tinct. The Hebrew words neshamah and ruach and the 
Greek word pneumct, meaning that vital air or breath 
which gives life, are never used interchangeably with 
the words nephesh and psache.* They are as distinct as 
the cause is from the effect. It is the inbreathing of this 
vital breath that causes the lifeless body to become a 
living soul. And then the heart begins to beat, the 
blood to circulate, and all the processes of sensitive, in- 
telligent, voluntary life spring into action. 

6. Now let this process be reversed. Let this life- 
giving breath be withdrawn ; the heart ceases to beat ; 
the circulation of the blood is stopped, and all the proc- 
esses of sensitive, intelligent, voluntary action are at an 
end ; and the organism itself begins at once to fall into 
ruin, and the body to return to the dust from which it 
came. This is death. This is just what the Scriptures 
say. 

" Thou sendest forth thy spirit (ruacft=breath) they are 
created; Thou takest away their breath (the same word, ruach) 
they die and return to the dust." Ps. 104. 

* The writer has discussed this subject of soul and spirit and 
the difference between them, fully in his volume The Life Ever- 
lasting, to which he refers the reader. 



Chap. VII.] THE CREATION OF MAN. 



131 



1 ' His breath (ruach) goeth forth ; lie returneth to the earth; 
in that very day his thoughts perish." Ps. 146. 

"For that which befalleth the sons of men, befalleth beasts; 
even one thiDg befalleth them; as the one dieth, so dieth the 
other; yea they all have one breath (ruach) ; so that [in this re- 
spect] man hath no pre-eminence above a beast." Ecc, 3: 9. 

Though " man hath no pre-eminence above the beasts," 
in the materials of which he is composed, nor in " the 
breath that is in his nostrils," nor in the food upon which 
he subsists, nor in the manner of his 2^'opagation and 
birth — after the creation of the first pair — nor in his ex- 
emption from the death, which is the common lot of all 
earthly creatures, yet though a fallen, mortal creature, — 
having failed to prove himself worthy of the prize of im- 
mortality that was put within his reach, choosing rather 
the good that perishes — man is still vastly superior to the 
brute in the capacity to know what he has lost by sin, 
and in the unique privilege of receiving it back again by 
the mercy of God, as a gift of grace through a second 
Adam and a second birth — as made known in the Gos- 
pel. — But we anticipate. 

The essential earthly nature of man is made evident 
by the name which was given to him by his Maker. The 
name " Adam " is not a personal proper name, though 
we apply it as such to the first man, because he has no 
other name. But it designates and characterizes the Avhole 
race. The word ddam means " the earth-made " or, a 
creature made of red (?) earth. Josephus says : " This 
man was called Adam, which, in the Hebrew tongue, sig- 
nifies one that is red, because he was formed of red earth 
compounded together.* This word appears in the very 

^Etymologists are not agreed as to the root of this word; 
Some derive it from a word which means red, or of a ruddy 
complexion; others from the word adamah, which means earth; 
Josephus seems to combine both meanings; others, with less 



132 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part II. 



first chapter of Genesis, where God's purpose to make 
man is first mentioned. It reads in our Bible " And God 
said let us make man," but in the original it is, " And 
God said let us make adam," and so throughout the Old 
Testament, unless the first man is especially referred to, 
the word "adam" is translated man, though another 
word, which yet more emphatically expresses man's tran- 
sitory nature after the fall is frequently employed, which 
is also rendered " man " ; that is enosh, which means 
mortal, perishable. One of the most common expres- 
sions throughout both the Old and the New Testaments 
to designate man is Flesh; " All flesh.h&d corrupted its 
way "— « The end of all flesh is come " ; " All flesh shall 
perish together and man shall turn to dust again." " That 
which is born of the flesh is flesh; " and in hundreds of 
other instances. 

Now is it not reasonable to suppose that if man had 
been endowed in his original creation, with an immortal 
spirit, this would have been indicated by some higher 
title than earth-made? Would not the title Elohim, 
gods, super human beings, with which the Tempter flat- 
tered our first parents, have been more exact ? But, 
according to the philosophy of the day, this is material- 
ism. It is, however, Bible teaching, by whatever name 
it may be called. 

It should be noticed that the woman — whose formation 
out of the side of the man we have not yet considered, 
and which it is not necessary to dwell upon, — receives 
this title Adam, equally with the man. We are told 

reason, think it is derived from a word which signifies " to 
build, 5 ' " to beget," " to cultivate," etc. But as it is almost 
identical with the word adamah, "earth," " earthy," "of the 
ground," this is generally understood to be its root-meaning, 
and so we understand it. 



Chap. VII.] 



THE CREATION OF MAN. 



133 



" God created them male and female, and blessed them 
and called their name 'Adam,' in the day when He cre- 
ated them." Gen. 5 : 2. It was the man, not God, who 
called the woman's name Eve, " because she was the 
mother of all living." God called them both Adam, not 
because she shared his name as the wife of Adam, as 
waives now share their husband's name, but because she 
shared his earthly nature. 

Let those who smile incredulously at the Scriptural 
account of the creation of the woman, suggest, if they 
can, a more plausible or significant or reasonable method 
of creation. They perhaps forget that, if created at all, 
the first pair must have been created in a manner that 
must appear to us abnormal and extraordinary. They 
could not have been born as their children are. They 
must have been miraculously formed. No method could 
have been adopted that would not be open to the criti- 
cisms of those who are disposed to cavil. After the 
creation of the first man, from the dust of the ground, 
God's method of forming the woman, who is destined 
to be his partner for life and a help meet for him, ap- 
pears to us, the more we consider it, a conception truly 
Divine and most beautifully significant of the relation 
which He designed to subsist between the husband and 
wife. 

From the record, the first pair appear to have entered 
upon life miraculously formed, in the full perfection of 
their physical nature — not as infants, for in that case 
they would have been helpless and quite unable to take 
care of themselves. But in their mental and moral na- 
tures, they were - inexperienced, unsophisticated, and 
without any positive character. The lofty descriptions 
which some poetic theologians and theological poets have 
drawn of their primitive state, before the fall, are mere 



134 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



fancy pictures without any warrant whatever either from 
reason or Scripture. That they were pure, and inno- 
cent and guileless, there can be no doubt ; for God made 
them so at the outset. But character is a growth. It is 
the result of free moral action, of action under tempta- 
tion, where there is a conflict of motives, and the will is 
free to choose between them. It is developed only 
under temptation, and cannot be given by creation. 

They begin their life in a world where change is the 
law of physical and material things. The life which 
animates all earthly organisms is transitory; they be- 
gin in weakness, rise more or less rapidly to maturity 
and then go down again through feebleness to death, and 
are resolved into the elements of which they were com- 
posed. They appear for a little time and then vanish 
away, to give place for others that are alike transitory 
in their nature. There is nothing in the physical organ- 
ism of this first pair — though exquisitely formed — to 
insure them against the common lot of all earthly organ- 
isms. Indeed, things that are the most beautiful are 
often the most frail and perishable. 

But there is within them a capacity for a higher, bet- 
ter and more enduring life than this world promises, to 
which they may hope to rise, if they shall prove them- 
selves worthy of it. They are placed midway, as it 
were, between two worlds. With their feet standing on 
this earth, they may look upward to the heavenly world 
above them, and hold communion with their Maker, and 
aspire to fellowship with the holy and happy spirits 
that surround His throne in love. So the Psalmist sings : 

" Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels and hast 
crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have 
dominion over the w r orks of Thy hands. Thou hast put all 
(earthly) things under his feet ; all sheep and oxen and the 
beasts of the field." Ps. 8: 5. 



Chap. VII.] 



THE CREATION OF MAN. 



135 



Whether they shall rise to this higher place, raid be 
taken into companionship with the angels, and be made 
heirs with them of Eternal Life; or whether they shall 
sink to the plane below, and take their lot with the 
beasts that perish, depends on their own free choice. 
Till this great question is determined, they can be called 
neither mortal nor immortal. They are candidates for 
immortality, yet liable to death. 

Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, who wrote in the lat- 
ter part of the second century, before the Grecian phi- 
losophy, which was beginning to find its v^ay into the 
Christian Church, had been generally accepted, well says : 

" But some will say, Was man made mortal by nature ? 
By no means. Immortal ? Nor do we say this. If im- 
mortal his Maker would seem to have made him a god ; 
if mortal, God would seem to be the author of sin. 
Therefore He made him neither mortal nor immortal, 
but capable of both ; so that if he advanced to the 
things which lead to Immortality, he might receive Im- 
mortality, and become godlike ; but if, on the other 
hand, he should turn to the works of the flesh, he would 
become unto himself the author of his own death." 

That they are even in their creation liable to death, 
and actually exempt from it only so long as they are free 
from sin, is made evident by the provision that is made 
for the preservation of their lives. A Tree of Life is 
provided, of which they may freely eat so long as they 
continue loyal and obedient, but no longer. Immedi- 
ately after their fall — as we shall soon see — this privi- 
lege is withdrawn, and they are debarred all access to it, 
and why? We are not left to conjecture the reason; 
for we are expressly told : " Lest he put forth his 

HAND AND TAKE ALSO OF THE TREE OF LlFE AND EAT 

and live forever " ! As we shall have occasion to 
remark further on this remarkable passage in the next 



136 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



chapter we pass it for the present, simply observing that 
it establishes beyond all reasonable dispute the point for 
which we are contending — that our first parents were 
not constituted immortal in their creation, and that all 
the life they had in their innocency was conditioned on 
their continued obedience, and even in that case, was 
dependent on their free access to the Tree of Life for 
its maintenance. To call such a life an immortal life is 
neither according to reason nor Scripture — but contrary 
to both. And yet on this question there appears to be 
more confusion of thought, and illogical reasoning and 
unscriptural dogmatism in our religious literature than 
on any other. We take as a specimen, the following 
jumble of truth and fiction from Calmet's Dictionar<j . 

" Immortality, in an absolute sense belongs to God only. 
[True.] He cannot die ; angels are immortal, but God 
who made them can terminate their being. [True again.] 
Man is immortal in part : that is, in his spirit, but his 
body dies. [Who taught the author this doct rifle ? surely 
he did not get it from the Bible. God said " Thou shalt 
surely die' 3 — not thy body, but thou thyself. It is what 
that other personage said, that our author is here endors- 
ing.] Inferior creatures are not immortal ; they die 
wholly. Thus the principle of immortality is differently 
communicated, according to the will of the Communica- 
tor, who can render any creature immortal by prolonging 
his life ; can confer immortality on the body of man to- 
gether with his soul, and who maintains angels in immor- 
tality by maintaining them in holiness. Holiness is the 
root of immortality — [True as the Bible.] But God 
only is absolutely holy, as God only is absolutely immortal. 
All imperfection is a drawback [Sic] on the principle of 
immortality ; only God is absolutely perfect, therefore 
only God is absolutely immortal." 

The author seems to be bewildered by his psychologi- 
cal notions. He has glimpses of the truth, but he does 
not venture to carry out the doctrine he asserts. If ho- 



Chap. VII.] THE CREATION OF MAN. 137 

liness is the " root " of immortality, what becomes of 
immortality when the root is wanting ? If God, as he 
says, " maintains angels in immortality by maintaining 
them in holiness," does He not maintain saints in immor- 
tality in the same way ? No doubt He does, for this is 
just what He says. What then becomes of the evil 
angels and reprobate sinners ? How are they maintained 
in immortality ? What he means by " all imperfection is 
a drawback on the principle of immortality, 5 ' we cannot 
guess, unless it be, that the imperfect and the wicked are 
not quite so immortal as the perfect ! ! But is immortality 
a thing of degrees ? Can one creature be more immortal 
than another and yet both be immortal ? Or does he 
mean that it is more difficult for God to make wicked and 
imperfect creatures immortal, but still He will do it ? 
Why not say as God's Word says, that holiness is essen- 
tial to the immortality of all of God's creatures whether 
angels or men, and failing of this, they cannot have 
immortality — they must die — not partly, but wholly and 
forever. 

Dr. Hodge, in his Systematic Theology, Vol. II., Chap. 
6, says : 

"The reward promised to Adam, on condition of 
obedience, was Life. This included the happy, holy, 
immortal existence of the soul and body. The death 
promised was the opposite of the life promised. But 
the life promised, as we have seen, includes all that is 
involved in the happy, holy, immortal existence of the 
soul and body; and therefore death must include not 
only all the miseries of this life and the dissolution of the 
body, but also all that is meant by spiritual and eternal 
death, — God is the life of the soul. His favor, and fel- 
lowship with Him are essential to its holiness and hap- 
piness [and why not to its life ?] If His favor be for- 
feited, the inevitable consequences are the death of the 
soul, i. e., its loss of spiritual life and unending sinful- 
ness and misery ! " 



133 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part II. 



But surely unending sin and misery are not the 
"opposite" of a happy, holy, immortal existence. 
Nothing but actual death is the " opposite " of life. 
How evidently the author slips away from his premises 
to save his dogma of the deathless nature of the soul ? 

But this part of the subject belongs to another place ; 
and we proceed to consider in the next chapter, The 
Genesis of Sin and Death. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The Genesis of Sin and Death. 

We have seen how the first pair of our race had their 
genesis on this earth, and from the earth, like all animal 
creatures, though the last made and highest of them all, 
they were like them essentially earthly, as the name 
Adam — earth-made, which their Creator Himself gave 
them, plainly shows. They were of the same physical 
organization, made of the same materials, and designed 
to breathe the same air, to subsist on the same food, to 
come into life by successive generations in the same way; 
but not necessarily to go out of it in the same way by 
death ; for they had the offer of a higher life, which is 
pure and deathless. But that they were liable to death, 
is manifest from the extraordinary provision in the Tree 
of Life, to secure them against it. They are candidates 
for that higher life, but not yet matriculated into it. 
Their character is yet inchoate and undecided. They 
must first go through a probation to prove that they are 
worthy, or fit for the immortality which is the lot only 
of those higher intelligences that are confirmed in holi- 
ness and loyalty to their Maker. If they shall recognize 
the claims of their Maker to their love and confidence, 
and give to their higher faculties the supremacy that 
rightfully belongs to them, they will prove themselves 
worthy of the boon that is offered to them, and capable 
of enjoying it. But if, on the other hand, they shall 
turn away from Him who is the Supreme Source of all 



140 THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part II. 

life and blessedness, and seek their chief good in the 
things of time and sense, and in the gratification of their 
animal and earthly natures, then they must lose their 
right to the Tree of Life, and share the perishable lot of 
all earthly creatures and things. 

How shall they be proved? It is evident that the 
test of their loyalty must be one that is adapted to their 
condition. A moment's reflection will show us, that 
very few, if any one of the prohibitions of the Deca- 
logue as afterwards given, would be applicable to their 
case. Those wko smile at the simplicity of the test pro- 
vided, seem not to consider this. To us, its chief excel- 
lence appears in its simplicity. It must be an objective 
test, and one that appeals to their sensitive nature. It 
must be one that possesses some attraction, and which 
will require the exercise of their faith in God, and their 
sense of obligation to Him, and yet one that is not over- 
powering in its nature. 

Here, in the midst of the garden, close by the Tree of 
Life, stands a tree the fruit of which they are forbidden 
to eat. Of the fruit of all the other trees they may 
freely partake ; but they are held back from the exer- 
cise of perfect liberty at this one point, or, as it were, 
by one cord. Shall this cord be severed that they may 
be perfectly independent of their Maker? The fruit of 
this tree is " pleasant to the eyes,'' and appears to be 
"good for food," and in addition to all this, it possesses 
that mysterious attraction which all forbidden objects 
have — something " to be desired to make one wise " — 
to give some knowledge or new experience which is 
withheld. But on the other hand, there are the claims 
of God, and the fearful penalty of disobedience. 

Balancing between these conflicting motives, the grat- 
ification of their sensitive natures, with a desire for 



Chap. VIII.] THE GENESIS OF SIN AND DEATH. 141 

perfect freedom from superior control, and a thirst for 
that mysterious knowledge which they can only have by 
disobedience, on the one hand ; and on the other, a sense 
of loyalty to God and the fear of the consequences of 
His displeasure, the Tempter now addresses himself 
to them, and plies his arts of persuasion, with how 
much success we know too well. That this Tempter 
was Satan is evident from the teaching of the Scriptures 
elsewhere. The " old Serpent," is one of the principal 
titles given to him. TVe are told that he was a Deceiver, 
a Liar, a Murderer {antho poktonos mankiller) from the 
beginning (see John 8:4-1, Rev. 20:2, etc.) What a 
change the curse of God may have wrought upon this 
animal, or whether there was anything supernatural at 
that time — as there certainly would be now — in the em- 
ployment of this agency to address the woman, we know 
not, and will forbear to guess.* But in any case, we 
need not suppose that either she or her husband in their 
inexperience, felt any surprise at being addressed in this 
manner. Like children, whose credulity is boundless, 
and to whom nothing seems miraculous, till observation 
and experience have taught them what are the laws and 
processes of nature, they listened without fear or surprise 
to his suggestions and flatteries. That they should have 
trusted their Maker, believed His Word, and held fast 
their allegiance, in spite of all the seductions of the 
Tempter, and their own natural desires for self-gratifica- 

* There is no appearance of limbs externally in the body of 
the serpent; but naturalists say. that under the skin of some 
serpents, at least, there are what seem to be inchoate limbs or 
wings, that have been arrested in their development. This 
fact, if it be so, taken in connection with the curse, " Upon thy 
belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy 
life," is certainly suggestive of what the animal once was, or 
might have been but for this curse. 



142 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



tion, as tliey might have done, cannot be doubted. But 
when he assured them that the penalty threatened, 
would not be executed, that instead of suffering less, 
they would be great gainers by transgressing, as he 
always assures those whom he tempts — that they would 
gain the knowledge they desired, and become like gods 
who know both good and evil and never die, they were 
only too willing to believe him ; and the woman — who 
" was deceived, 5 ' as we are told, " took of the fruit of the 
tree, and did eat, and she gave also to her husband with 
her and he did eat." 

That they foresaw ail the disastrous consequences of 
their disobedience, to themselves and their posterity, and 
deliberately chose them, we need not suppose. Xo 
transgressor ever does this. But that they knew what 
was the penalty threatened, we have no reason to doubt. 
It was Death. They could not but have known, if they 
knew anything, what death was. It was the common 
lot of all earthly creatures and things. They were sur- 
rounded on every side by the evidence of their transitory 
nature. Plants and animals without number, had lived 
and died before they themselves were created, and pass- 
ing away, had given place to others, and they to others, 
in long succession, that were alike transitory. The dust 
of decaying organisms that once had life mingled every- 
where with the soil out of which they were formed. 
They may not have believed that this doom would be 
executed upon them. The Tempter assured them that 
they would not die. They appear to have believed him, 
as men now do. But they could not have misunderstood 
the meaning of the word die / nor need any man, nor 
would any man, were he not under the same delusion 
which was practiced on them. There is nothing in the 
Divine record of the creation of man, nor in the words 



Chap. VIII.] THE GENESIS OF SIN AND DEATH. 143 

of the threatening, nor in the words of the sentence 
when pronounced, nor indeed in any part of God's Word 
to sustain the interpretation which heathen superstition, 
and Grecian philosophy, and scholastic speculation have 
put upon this word death in its application to man. On 
this point Albert Barnes in his commentary on Rom. 5 : 
12, says: 

" If an inquiry be made here, how Adam could under- 
stand this ; I reply, that we have no reason to think that 
he would understand it as referring to anything more 
than the loss of life, as an expression of the displeasure 
of God. Moses does not intimate that he was learned in 
the nature of laws and penalties [If he had been, he 
certainly would have understood it as meaning just what 
it says — no more and no less, — -for no human law says 
one thing and means another] and in his narrative would 
lead us to suppose that this was all that would occur to 
Adam. And indeed there is the highest evidence that 
the case admits of, that this was his understanding of it. 
For in the account of the infliction of the penalty after 
the law was executed, in God's own interpretation of it, 
there is still no reference to anything further, c Dust thou 
art and unto dust shalt thou return.' ISTow it is incredi- 
ble that Adam should have understood this as referring to 
what has been called c spiritual death ' and to ' eternal 
death ' — |~i. e. endless misery] when neither in the threat- 
ening, nor in the account of the infliction of the sentence, 
is there the slightest recorded reference to it. Men have 
done great injury in the cause of correct interpretation 
by carrying their notions of doctrinal subjects into the 
explanation of words and phrases of the Old Testament." 

Every principle of honor and of truth demands that 
God should have said what He meant, and meant what He 
said, in announcing to them the penalty of their disobe- 
dience. The supposition that He had in His own mind a 
penalty quite different from this ; yea one of so terrible a 
nature as to shock the moral sense of every intelligent 
creature who contemplates it, and that He should have 



144 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



covered it up, and concealed it by an enigmatical expres- 
sion, only to be revealed after the offence bad been com- 
mitted, ought not — cannot be credited by any one who 
duly honors the truth and j ustice of God, to say nothing of 
His goodness and mercy. And furthermore, what shall 
we say of the doctrine, that they incurred, at the same 
time, this same unutterable doom of endless misery, not 
only for themselves, but for all their infant posterity, to 
the end of the world ! ! And yet, this is the sophisticated 
theology which Augustine, and his associates and succes- 
sors, have formulated for ns, and handed down to ns from 
generation to generation, as the true orthodox system of 
the Christian Church. In proof of this assertion Ave may 
refer to any of our traditional creeds or catechisms or sys- 
tems of theology. It will suffice to quote the following 
from Cruden's Concordance under the word " death." 

" Death signifies (1) The -separation of the soul from 
the body. This is Temporal death. (2) A separation 
of soul and body from God's favor, in this life, 
which is the state of all unregenerated and unre- 
newed persons who are without the light of knowledge - 
and the quickening power of grace. This is Spiritual 
death. Co) The perpetual separation of the whole man 
from God's heavenly presence and glory, to be tormented 
forever with the devil and his angels. This is the sec- 
ond death or Eternal death. To all these hinds of death 
Adam made himself and his posterity liable by trans- 
gressing the commandment of God by eating the forbid- 
den fruit. 

We are bold to say that there is not one word or hint, 
or shadow of a hint, in all the Bible to justify such a mon- 
strous scheme of doctrine. It is sheer scholasticism, — and 
that too, of the worst sort. It was evidently fabricated 
to bring the Word of God, which positively declares that 
death is the penalty of sin, into a seeming accordance 



Chap. VIII.] THE GENESIS OF SIN AND DEATH. 



145 



with a philosophy that declares that man will not, cannot 
actually die. 

That our first parents could not possibly have under- 
stood any such threefold doom as involved in this one 
word, is quite evident. That no such doom was intended 
by God will be equally evident when we come to listen to 
the sentence of condemnation which He pronounces 
upon them. 

" And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast 
done this, thou art cursed above all cattle and above every 
beast of the field, upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt 
thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity be- 
tween thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. 
It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel. 

"And unto the woman he said: I will greatly multiply thy 
sorrow, and thy conception; in sorrow shalt thou bring forth 
children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall 
rule over thee. 

" And unto Adam he said. Because thou hast hearkened unto 
the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I 
commanded thee saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the 
ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days 
of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and 
thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face 
shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground, for out of it 
wast thou taken; for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return." 

Of the many interesting points suggested by this pas- 
sage, we can notice, and this but briefly, only these three : 

1. We have God's own interpretation of what He 
meant by the words : " In the day that thou eatest there- 
of thou shalt surely die." They lost at once and forever 
the claim to immortality in themselves, and all hope of 
exemption from the common lot of earthly creatures. 
They fell immediately under the sentence of death. The 
struggle between themselves and the great monster from 
this moment began, which would inevitably be one of 
7 ^~ 



146! 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part II. 



sorrow and pain, and however long it should continue, 
would surely end in their falling under His power, and 
returning to the dust from which they came. 

Adam Clark says, in his Commentary, it means : " From 
that moment, thou shalt become mortal, and shalt continue 
in a dying state till thou die. This we find literally accom- 
plished ; every moment of his life, he may be considered as 
dying till his soul and body are separated [Death means 
more than a separation of soul and body ; it means a ces- 
sation of life]. Other meanings have been given to this 
passage but they are in general either fanciful or incorrect." 
So Dean Alf ord also says in loco : " A man may, as we 
say, die by inches, and may be said — if passing from a state 
where death was not the necessary end of his days — to 
die, when the seeds of death begin to work in him. It is 
not sufficiently borne in mind, that man's exclusion from 
the Tree of Life, which could have conferred immortality 
on him, ivas the carrying out of this sentence" Isaac 
Watts in his Ruin and Recovery of Mankind (Question 
XI.) says : "Who can say whether the word death might 
not be fairly construed to extend to the utter destruction 
of the life of the soul as well as of the body ? For man, 
by sin had forfeited all that God had given him, that is, 
the life and existence of his soul as well as his body ; and 
why might not the threatening declare the light that even 
a God of goodness had to resume all back again, and ut- 
terly destroy and annihilate His creatures forever ? There 
is not one place of Scripture that occurs to me, where the 
word 4 death ' as it was first threatened in the law of inno- 
cency, necessarily signifies a certain miserable immortality 
of the soul, either to Adam the actual sinner or to his 
posterity." That literal death is what was meant, and all 
that was meant by the words " surely die" is further evi- 
dent when we are told, as in Gen. 5 : 5, that he did "die " 



Chap. VIII.] THE GENESIS OF SIN AND DEATH. 147 

as God had said, The same word {math) is used in both 
places. It is quite unreasonable to suppose that it has two 
different meanings in these two cases. 

2. But there are those who object to this interpreta- 
tion, because the full execution of the sentence of death 
is postponed. It is said, " In the day that thou eatest 
thereof thou shalt surely die." The cumbrous theory of 
three sorts of deaths, — two of which are not death at 
all, but so called to give plausibility to the theory, — rests 
mainly on an arbitrary construction of this adverbial 
clause. But any one may see by referring to his Concor- 
dance, that the phrases, " to day." " this day," " in the 
day of," etc., are not only used with great frequency in 
the Scriptures, but that they do not usually refer to a 
specific astronomical day of twenty-four hours. They 
are used to certify or emphasize a declaration, to give 
it an objective certainty. In this very account of the 
creation, the word " day " is evidently used in a very 
broad sense, to designate a period of time, more or less 
extended. It is not generally supposed that the first six 
days of creation were literal days of twenty-four hours 
each. It certainly has a broader sense in the following 
passage, Gen. 2:4: " These are the generations of the 
heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the 
day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens." 

But we have no occasion to insist on giving any other 
than the strictest literal interpretation to this phrase ; for 
we cannot doubt that their forfeited lives would have 
been at once taken, and the inchoate race of man on 
earth brought to an end, in its first representatives, had it 
not been for God's purpose to redeem man from death by 
a Divine Saviour, and to offer him another life — by a res- 
urrection from the dead, — an Eternal Life beyond all 
possible contingency of forfeiture by a Second Adam 



148 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



from heaven. Hence the execution of the sentence was 
suspended — not annulled — and they were permitted to 
live for a time, — as we all now are, after having forfeited 
our lives by sin, and fallen under the same sentence — that 
they might come under this system of recovering grace. 
And may we not hope, that this long reprieve was not in 
vain even in their case ; and that though God's truth 
must be justified in their death, as in ours, they died, at 
last, in the hope of a better resurrection; and that 
when they shall rise again "from the dust of the 
ground," at the coming of. their Redeemer, with all their 
children, it will be with bodies not earth-made, but spirit- 
ual, and incorruptible, like unto His own glorious body, 
to enter with the innumerable company of the redeemed 
upon that new life, a higher and better life that shall 
never end in the Paradise of God? 

3. It is commonly said, that God pronounced a curse 
upon our first parents and their posterity. But we do not 
find it in the record. On the contrary, we find intima- 
tions of mercy even in the announcement of their doom. 
He cursed the ground for their sake, so as to render it more 
difficult of cultivation, and require toil and sweat to se- 
cure its fruits. He foretold also the peculiar hardships 
and pains of the woman. He did curse most emphati- 
cally the agent in the accomplishing their ruin, and in 
him the Great Deceiver himself; but in that curse He 
gave intimations of mercy, toward the dupes of his 
malice. They may not have understood all that was 
meant by that mysterious promise, that the seed of the 
woman should crush the serpent's head, but it is evident 
from the sequel that it was pregnant with hope even to 
them. To us, who read it in the light of the Gospel, it 
gives an assurance of the issue of the conflict which he 
had provoked, in the complete destruction of this great 



Chap. VIII.] THE GENESIS OF SIN AND DEATH. 149 

enemy of God and men, by one of her own children in 
the flesh, but invested with Almighty power. 

One point more remains to be noticed in this connec- 
tion which throws a flood of light on this question of 
immortality in sin, from our point of view, and which 
would seem to confirm, beyond the possibility of dispute, 
the truth for which we are contending, — but which is, and 
ever must be, full of darkness and mystery to those who 
take the opposite view. They are at once driven from 
this earthly Paradise, and debarred all access to the Tree 
of Life, by means of which their lives were to have been 
perpetuated, had they not sinned, — or which, as some think, 
had been given them as a pledge of its perpetuation, — it 
matters not which, — this one point is evident : All possibil- 
ity or hope of immortality in sin was now taken away 
from them. " And cherubim and a flaming sword, which 
turned every way to keep the Tree of Life," were placed 
at the eastern entrance to the garden. And for this 
express purpose, as the Scripture informs us, " lest he 
(the man and woman adam) put forth his hand and take 
also of the Tree of Life, and eat and Live forever." 

This is not to be regarded as a superadded curse, but 
as a signal act of Divine mercy. For what could have 
been more awful or more cruel in their Maker, than to 
have perpetuated their forfeited lives forever and ever, 
in sin and misery ! And yet this is the very doctrine our 
sophisticated theology teaches. Milton, who holds with 
us, in his Paradise Lost, represents God as saying : 

" I at first with two fair gifts 
Created him endowed — with happiness 
And immortality ; that fondly lost, 
This other served but to eternize woe, 
Till I provided death." 



150 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



So also Prof. Stanley Leathes, in Smith's Bible Dic- 
tionary, says ; as every thoughtful scholar who is not 
utterly blinded by his philosophy must say : 

" Though the curse of Adam's rebellion, of necessity, 
fell upon him, yet the very prohibition to eat of the Tree 
of Life, after his transgression, was probably a manifesta- 
tion of Divine mercy, because the greatest malediction 
of all, would have been to have the gift of indestructible 
life superadded to a state of wretchedness and sin." 

Irenseus, who wrote in the Second century also says : 
" The Lord drove man out of Paradise and removed him 
from the Tree of Life, because He pitied him, and did 
not desire that he should continue a sinner forever, nor 
that the sin that surrounded him should be immortal, an 
evil interminable^ 

But let it be observed, this Tree of Life is not de- 
stroyed, it is permitted to stand, though guarded from 
all sinful approach, till the right to eat of it in the heav- 
enly Paradise of which this earthly one is but a type, 
shall be regained for man by the Second Adani.* 

John in the closing chapters of his Revelation, after his 
vision of the battle fought, and the victory won, and Sa- 
tan and all his hosts, not only overthrown, but cast into 
the lake of fire, with Death and Hades to be utterly and 
forever consumed, gives a glowing picture of this celes- 
tial Paradise, and then says : " And he showed me a pure 

* The Hindu Mythology teaches that there is a certain fluid 
prepared by the gods, called the Arurutta or drink of immor- 
tality, which confers eternal life upon all who taste it. But to 
the pious man, along with immortality, it brings happiness, 
without measure and without end; while in the wicked it 
works everlasting agony. So has heathen tradition misinter- 
£>reted and perverted the real design of this Tree of Life— The 
goodness of God forbids His conferring immortality on the . 
wicked who must of necessity be miserable. It is only those 
who are fitted to enjoy eternal Life who are permitted to eat of 
this fruit. 



Chap. VIII.] THE GENESIS OF SIX AND DEATH. 



151 



river of water of life clear as crystal, proceeding out of 
the throne of God and the Lamb. In the midst of the 
street of it and on either side of the river was there the 
Teee of Life, which bore twelve manner of fruits, and 
yielded her fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree 
were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be 
no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb 
shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him; and they 
shall see His face ; and His name shall be in their fore- 
heads, and there shall be no night there ; and they need 
no candle, neither the light of the sun; for the Lord God 
giveth them light ; and they shall reign forever and ever.'' 
That God should have caused the eternal destiny of the 
whole human race to depend on this one act of the first 
pair seems, to many, arbitrary and unjust. But this com- 
plaint arises from a misconception of the case. If the 
two alternatives had been eternal happiness or eternal 
misery, as our traditional theology teaches, then indeed 
one might well complain of such a trial for the race, or 
even foj any one individual of the race. But there was 
no such trial. The alternatives were not eternal weal or 
eternal woe even for themselves, much less for their pos- 
terity ; nor is there any warrant from Scripture for such 
an inference. The test was simply this : Which should 
have the .supremacy, their moral or their physical natures 
— Whether they should be controlled by the demands of 
the spirit or the flesh, by faith or by sight, — Whether 
they .should seek as their supreme good, things heavenly 
and eternal or things earthly and perishable. If they 
should choose the former, they might hope for the favor 
of God forever, and need have no fear of death ; if the 
latter, they would incur His displeasure, and, of neces- 
sity, have their portion in the perishable and transitory 
things of earth, like all other earthly creatures. 



152 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



The trial of the first pair would evidently be the trial 
of the whole race of their descendants ; for all are con- 
stituted alike. The stream cannot rise any higher than 
its source. The popular proverb is certainly applicable 
in this case : " It is not needful to drink the whole barrel 
to test the quality of its contents." One taste will suffice 
for this. This will be especially evident when we con- 
sider the perfect equipoise of their natures ; that they 
were swayed by no evil habits, or tendencies or heredi- 
tary bias, and were surrounded by hardly any other temp- 
tation to sin but in this one direction. No trial could 
have been made under circumstances more favorable to 
a successful issue. It proved conclusively, that the hu- 
man race was as yet unfit for immortality. And if God 
had not intended to give us Eternal Life, under another 
probation, and better auspices, our case would have been 
hopeless. 

Let us suppose that they had successfully passed 
through this first trial ; this would not have placed them 
beyond the reach of temptation, so long as they remained 
in the flesh, the perpetuation of their lives would still 
have depended on their perpetual obedience. They 
could have attained to nothing in this life, beyond a con- 
tingent immortality, conditioned on their continued free- 
dom from sin. Neither could their descendants, however 
free they might have been from any evil bias at their 
birth. Every one must have been on a continuous pro- 
bation, with no security against falling excepting in 
himself. 

Instead of complaining, ought we not to rejoice that 
we have had our trial in them, and that though we come 
into life under this forfeiture with all the disabilities it 
imposed, we come under a system of recovering grace, by 
which Eternal Life is again offered to us by a new birth 



Chap. VIII.] THE GENESIS OF SIN AND DEATH. 153 



through a Second Adam, and secured to all who accept 
of it through Hhn, beyond the possibility of loss ? 

Still further may we not inquire, whether mankind 
could have been qualified for this better life, but by a 
knowledge of good and evil ? Whether they could have 
risen to that life above, without first having gone down 
to death through the sad experience of sin ? Was not 
the Adamic state necessarily preliminary and preparatory 
to the higher Christian state ? May we not see the wis- 
dom of the Creator, as well as His goodness and mercy, 
in this plan of recovering grace ? Instead of looking up- 
on the fall of man as originally created, as a disaster al- 
together deplorable, and the scheme of grace consequent 
upon it, as an expedient to repair the mischief, and which 
at best is but partially successful ; may we not suppose 
that He who is all wise, and sees the end from the be- 
ginning, and makes no mistakes, in His purpose to give 
immortality to man, knew how he could be best fitted for 
it, and secured in the enjoyment of the boon? 

It seems to be a law of nature, and of providence and 
of grace also, that the inferior and imperfect must come 
before that which is higher and better ; and that the 
highest stage is to be reached only by coming up through 
those that are below. "And so it is written, the first 
man Adam was made a living soul (or animal creature) ; 
the last Adam was made a quickening (life-giving) spirit. 
Howbeit, that was not first which is spiritual but that 
which is natural {animal) and afterward that which is 
spiritual. The first man was of the earth, earthy ; the 
second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, 
such are they also that are earthy, and as is the heavenly, 
such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have 
borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the 
image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that 
7* 



154 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part II. 



flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; 
neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." We must 
first go through this lower stage and die, before we can 
rise to a higher and more enduring life in the kingdom of 
God. Did not our Lord teach this, when He said : " Ver- 
ily, verily I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall 
into the ground and die, it abideth alone ; but if it die, 
it bringeth forth much fruit." And does not the Apostle 
Paul say the same in the chapter from which we have 
just quoted : " That which thou sowest is not quickened 
except it die " ? Is not this the plain teaching of the 
Gospel, that we gain infinitely more in Christ than we 
lost in Adam? that what we lost in the first Adam was, 
at best, but an earthly Paradise, but that in the Second 
Adam, we gain a celestial Paradise ? that Christ came, 
not simply to repair the ruin of the fall, and to bring man- 
kind back again into favor with God, but to raise them to 
a state infinitely higher than they could have been en- 
titled to, had their earthly progenitor remained in the 
innocency of his first creation ? 

The first Adam had but a contingent life, at best, and 
this he forfeited for himself and his posterity — as we al- 
so have done over and over again for ourselves by our 
own sins ; but the Second Adam proved himself superior 
to the seductions of the great Deceiver. He possessed 
an absolute immortality in His own right ; and this is the 
life He transmits to all His own children in a second 
birth, and by a resurrection from the dead ; nor will He 
suffer the great Adversary to take it from them. 

" My sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow 
me ; and I give unto them Eternal Life, and they shall never 
perish; neither shall any pluck them out of my hand," 

" Because I live ye shall live also." 

66 1 am the Resurrection and the Life; he that believeth in 
me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever 
liveth and believeth in me shall never die." 



Chap. VIII.] THE GENESIS OF SIX AXD DEATH. 155 



Note.— We concur so heartily in the following sentiments 
expressed in a volume just issued, and they seem so apposite 
to the theme in hand that we take pleasure in giving them, 
by way of an annex to the foregoing Chapter. 

" Is the gift of Eternal Life through Jesus Christ a perpet- 
uation of this present gift of life, or is it a gift of a higher 
order ? 

"It would be presumptuous in any man to attempt to tell 
what life is. Science has been pursuing the secret with mi- 
croscope and scalpel, and tracing its footsteps backward along 
the ages. And yet she cannot cross the border-line of this 
mystery. All we know is. that it is from God. the Fountain of 
all Life. Science and Scripture unite in affirming that it is 
closely connected with this system of creation. Some scien- 
tific philosophers seek to convince us that this system furnishes 
from within itself the substratum and the potency of every 
form of life. And yet confessedly they have never penetrated 
to the origin of life. Their conjectures, therefore, are worth 
nothing alongside of the Bible declaration, that e the Father 
hath life in Himself.' and that from Him all things live. But 
He has made nature to be the soil upon which life grows and 
is nurtured. It is the arena upon which it performs its func- 
tions and puts forth its energies. It is the domain it seeks to 
subsidize for its uses and fully possess. 

"'And hence we observe that all life in this system of nature 
seeks embodiment. A body is necessary in order to bring cre- 
ated life into connection with and dominion over God's works. 
Our bodies are centers of the forces that play through this cre- 
ated system; batteries by means of which they are stored up 
for our use. I am persuaded that in our prevalent conception 
of the gift of life, we depreciate embodiment. We infer from 
Scriptures, that it is the only form of created life that can pos- 
sess and enjoy our Father's vast estate. Hence the impor- 
tance of that cardinal doctrine of the New Testament, the Bes- 
v.rrection. Even He, in whom creation was headed up from the 
beginning, became embodied. And in Him the fulness of the 
Godhead now dwells bodily. Evil spirits appear to be the 
outcasts from this system. Hence Scripture gives no instance 
of the appearance of embodied evil spirits, except as they 
steal into and possess themselves of other persons' bodies. 
They even prefer swine to being disembodied. On the other 



156 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT, 



[Part II. 



hand, in all the instances in which good beings from the un- 
seen world appear to men. there was a visible form. 

'•Looking now at the teachings of science and of Revelation 
concerning the progress of creation, we find that, from the be- 
ginning the Creator has been preparing it to be the domain 
of embodied life. We find an ascending series of created 
forms, from plants, and creeping things, nntil the whole is 
headed up in man, made in the image of God. The account in 
Genesis is not inconsistent with, and is, perhaps best explained 
by the supposition that there was a lower form of human life 
on the earth before Adam. We are not precluded even from 
supposing that man, as to his animal nature, is an evolution 
from the lower forms of life. But Adam was the first creation 
of man with a Spiritual nature capable of knowing God and of 
immortality through union in life with Him. 

'•Adam was a grand step upward in the ascending series of 
life. But our present inquiry is, Has the Creator taken the last 
step in this advance of life on the platform of His work ? We 
reply, No. Adam was an earthy man, made capable of eter- 
nal life. But he lost this great boon by disobedience. Indeed 
it was never intended that he should attain and hold it for him- 
self and his posterity. The casket of his manhood was too 
frail for such a treasure, his hand too weak for such a scepter. 
It was in the mind of God from the beginning of creation to 
produce on its platform a Divine man, immortal in his own na- 
ture, as the completed image of Himself, and worthy to wear 
as his representative the crown of this great system. The first 
man was but a mortal, corruptible image of the invisible 
God, a perishable model in clay, of the noble image in the 
mind of the Divine Artist, which was to hereafter stand on the 
summit of creation and wear its crown. 

"The incarnation ; therefore, was another step in the ascending 
series of creation, the birth into it of a heavenly man, but not 
the final step, as is assumed, in much of the Christian think- 
ing of the day. Its highest exponents, as, for example, Joseph 
Cook, do not avoid this error of making the incarnation the 
climax of creation. It can be shown that this is a subtle point 
of departure from the faith once delivered to the saints. The 
Resurrection of Jesus in the glorified form of manhood, that was 
the culmination of all God's wondrous working in creation 
along the ages. To stop short of this, to view the incarnation 



Chap. VIII.] THE GENESIS OF SIN AND DEATH. 



157 



otherwise than as in order to the resurrection, is only to know 
Christ Jesus after the flesh, whereas we are henceforth to know 
Him in this character no more. It is to forget that if any man 
be in Christ he is a new creation. The newly created immortal 
man, the perfect image of the invisible God, was brought to 
view when Jesus rose from the dead. The ideal manhood, 
which had been the primeval thought of God, and the goal of 
His creative energy was then realized. Before this signal tri- 
umph Jesus was in the likeness of sinful flesh. Our flesh and 
blood even in Him could not inherit the kingdom of God. 
Hence His body was newly created in that fashion of Glory 
in which, as the risen man, He is now seated at the right hand 
of power. 

" At the resurrection of Jesus, then, we have the introduction 
of the new and final form of embodied life, the divine man- 
hood. And this is the grand, the culminating revelation of 
the Word of God, the mystery, which in other ages was not 
made known, and before the splendor of which the light which 
shines upon all heathen systems of religion, or of human 
philosophy, or from the highest watch-towers of modern science 
pales, as does a rush-light before the sun. 

" If we were to ask Science whether the highest form of cre- 
ated life has yet appeared upon the earth, she cannot tell us. 
She leads up through ail stages of life to the earthly man and 
exclaims, Ecce homo ! Behold the man for whom the earth 
has been so long preparing! But she knows nothing of the 
coming man. She teaches no doctrine of resurrection from the 
dead. 

" But this Word tells us of a new order of humanity. The 
Head and Type of it has already been here. He was made 
flesh and dwelt among us. But through death He passed be- 
yond this mortal sphere out into immortal manhood. And 
all heaven uttered another Ecce Homo ! Behold' the man, the 
final result of God's wondrous working along the ages, the 
consummate product of His wisdom and power in heaven and 
on earth. When Paul, then, speaks as he does in his salutation 
to Titus, of the ' hope of Eternal life, which God, that cannot 
lie, promised before the world began,' he is speaking definite- 
ly of that new order of life which is embodied in the new 
man. Christ Jesus. This is now God's gift to us through 
Him. It is not a mere perpetuation of the order of life 



158 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



and manhood in which we were first created in Adam. 
It is a new endowment to which we are born in Christ, in vir- 
tue of which we become Sons of God of a new order, a new 
and higher rank in creation. To this new manhood there per- 
tains that life which is superior to all the forces and sub- 
stances of the universe. Life, as we see it in these perishable 
forms, has power to subsidize the elements of nature for its 
support, and to direct its force for its own ends. But this it 
does now, not by inherent right, but in the way of warfare 
and subjugation, and in this straggle its powers ultimately 
break down. But Eternal life must bend all things in heaven 
and earth to its behest. It must be superior to all principali- 
ties and powers. All substances must wait upon its needs, and 
all forces become tributary to its aims. The harvest therefore, 
for which God has long been ploughing and tilling these fields 
of creation is not yet complete. A new order of being is to 
be produced, invested with Eternal life. Christ is the 1 first 
fruits' in the new order. But we also are ' a kind of first 
fruits.' 

"We are told that the whole creation is groaning and waiting 
for the manifestation of these Sons of God. They are its des- 
tined lords, and also its deliverers. They are that anointed 
race who are to subdue all its wide realms to the will of God, 
and make them vocal with His praise. And they cannot be 
fitted for this high office except as they rise in eternal life 
triumphant over all the forces and powers that prevail in this 
system. Man in flesh and blood is not worthy or capable of 
this dignity. But God, before the foundation of the world, 
provided for the redemption and reinvestment of man for this 
high office in the power of an endless life. And this, as we 
have seen, implies corporeity. Eternal life for man requires his 
new creation in body as well as spirit. 

"In this way alone can he become a perfect image of God and 
a fit vessel for His eternal praise." The mystery of Creation and 
of Man. Chap. XII. Ret. L. C. Baker. 



CHAPTER IX. 



Inferential Evidence. 
I. Animal Sacrifices. II. Silence of the Scriptures. 

The inferential evidence, from the Scriptures in support 
of our thesis, is so clear and strong, that we must call the 
reader's attention to two points at least, under this head, 
before proceeding to examine that which is more direct 
and explicit. 

I. The institution of Animal Sacrifices, 

The prominent position that was given to this rite in 
the religious worship of God's ancient people, from the 
very beginning down to the death of Christ the Great Sac- 
rifice, shows that it had a peculiar significance. It took 
precedence of every other act of worship. In fact, their 
religious worship centered in this one rite. It was not 
merely the chief way, under the old economy, but the 
only revealed way of acceptable approach to God. It 
seems to have been instituted immediately after the fall, — 
even before our first parents were driven from the garden. 
For the very next event recorded, after the announcement 
of the sentence, is this fact : " Unto Adam also and to 
his wife did the Lord make coats of skins and clothed 
them." We may well suppose that these were skins of 
animals they had been instructed to offer in sacrifice ; for 
they had not yet received permission to eat animal fiesh. 
In the next chapter we read of the sacrifice " of the first- 
lings of his flock," which Abel brought, and the offering 
" of the fruit of the ground " which Cain brought unto 

159 



160 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



the Lord; and that, "the Lord had respect unto 
Abel and to his offering ; but unto Cain and his offering 
He had not respect." Why was the one more acceptable 
than the other ? For aught that aj>pears to the contrary, 
the offering of Cain was as pure, and as costly, and as 
freely made as that of his brother. The reason for this 
difference is quite obvious. The one was a sacrifice, and 
the other was not. In the offering of Cain, there was an 
acknowledgment of the Sovereignty of God. It was an 
act of worship. But there was no recognition of the for- 
feiture of his own life by sin, nor of his need of salva- 
tion from its penalty of death. But Abel, in pouring out 
the life of these innocent victims, acknowledged the for- 
feiture of his own life ; and sought the mercy of God 
through these animal substitutes. Whether he had any 
intelligent faith in the Great Sacrifice yet to be offered, of 
which to us it is the evident type, we need not now in- 
quire. It is to the import of the sacrifice itself that we 
ask attention. Why should the life of an innocent ani- 
mal be taken and given to God by the worshiper? 
What else could it mean, but that the life of the wor- 
shiper himself had been forfeited ? Theologians tell 
us that it is an acknowledgment of the Sovereignty of 
God. So is all worship. So was Cain's offering. It 
means vastly more than this. Viewed apart from this 
idea of the forfeiture of life, and the offering of an inno- 
cent substitute, — -the most worthy one that can be found — 
this rite would seem to be without reason, and anything 
but acceptable to a holy God, who has a tender regard 
for all His creatures. 

From the early institution of this rite, we see how it 
came to have a place in the religions of mankind every- 
where. It was not a human device. It came down by 
tradition from the beginning. Though mankind de- 



Chap. IX.] 



INFERENTIAL EVIDENCE. 



161 



parted far from the true God, and lost the knowledge of 
Him, yet they were not suffered to lose this one grand 
fact, that speaks so plainly of the forfeiture of life by 
sin, and of redemption as their only ground of hope. 
This is one of the ways in which " God has not left Him- 
self without a witness," even amid the darkness of the 
heathen world. No other reason can be assigned why so 
singular and otherwise unmeaning a rite, should have 
been so universally adopted. It speaks plainly of the 
need of redemption by a substitute. It points to the 
Gospel yet to be revealed to the world. It is not to be 
supposed that its full significance was apprehended by 
these ignorant idolaters ; nor was it even by the Ancient 
Hebrews ; nor by Abel. It could not have been, till the 
blood of Christ, " which speaketh of better things than 
the blood of Abel's " sacrifice was poured out on Calvary. 

We who live under the Gospel know that all these ani- 
mal sacrifices pointed to c< the Lamb of God that taketh 
away the sin of the world." But it is to be feared, that 
many under the Gospel have but a very faint and imper- 
fect idea of the true meaning of that Great Sacrifice made 
for their redemption from death. 

Why must these animals be put to death ? Why must 
their blood, which is their life, be poured out ? They 
were not to be tortured, nor imprisoned ; but put to 
death, and that too, with as little suffering as possible. 
The significance of the act did not consist in the mere 
offering of the animals to God ; but in the offering of 
their lives, in the spilling of their blood. So the virtue 
of the Great Offering consists, not in the sufferings 
which our Lord endured, as a false theology teaches. 
These were brief, though severe while they continued ; 
but not so severe as the sufferings of thousands who have 
been put to death under every form of protracted tortures 



162 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part II. 



that human and fiendish cruelty could devise. The 
schoolmen, who undertake to find the virtue of Christ's 
sacrifice, in the agonies He suffered, and who estimate 
them as equal, in amount, to what would have been the 
accumulated agonies of all whom He redeemed from eter- 
nal suffering, miss its true meaning entirely. Thus we 
see to what preposterous conclusions this false dogma of 
immortality in sin and suffering will drive men in their 
efforts to explain the simple Gospel in accordance with it. 

It was by the Death of Christ that we are redeemed 
from death, — the death of a sinless man who could claim 
in His own right exemption from death, as Adam might 
have done had he continued sinless. It was no mockery 
of death by which He escaped from the body, for a time, 
that He might make an excursion into Hades and then 
return and take it, but an actual death, the same kind of 
death that man incurs by sin. All that was human in 
Him died — His Divine Spirit could not die — and then, 
quickened again by that same Spirit, He burst the bands 
of death, and rose in the same body, and yet not the same, 
for it was changed into a glorious, imperishable body, and 
made fit for the everlasting habitation of His immortal 
Spirit. It is not by His death alone, but by His death 
and resurrection that He becomes our Redeemer from 
death. If He had not risen, there could have been no 
resurrection for us. We had utterly perished. He died, 
then, not to save us from dying, but to redeem us from 
the power and dominion of death. Xow He is qualified 
to become the Second Adam of all of us who trust in 
Him, and to immortalize us by a new birth and by a res- 
urrection from the dead at His Second Coming, when 
" He shall change our vile bodies that they may be fash- 
ioned like unto His glorious body, according to the work- 
ing whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself. 55 



Chap. IX.] INFERENTIAL EVIDENCE. 163 

Viewed in this light, the sacrificial system becomes 
luminous, and sets forth emphatically, this great Gospel 
truth, that though we inherit death from our progenitors 
in the flesh, we have life again and immortality from our 
Spiritual Progenitor, the Eternal Son of God. 

II. The Silence of the Scriptures as to the Natural 
Immortality of Man. 

Our traditional theology teaches that every child of 
Adam that is born into the world is born to a life that is 
absolutely endless ; that he can neither lose nor forfeit 
nor extinguish it by any act of his own, and that the 
Creator Himself never can, or at least, never will, for any 
cause whatever, destroy it, or take it away from him, 
however much he may despise or abuse the gift, or fail of 
the end for which he was created ; that the flame of life, 
once kindled in infancy, will burn on and on so long as 
God Himself endures ; that there is no power in sin 
which — as the Scriptures say — " bringeth forth death," 
to put an end to it ; that the waters of Lethe cannot 
quench it, nor the blasts of God's anger in the judgment 
extinguish it, nor the gnawing worm, or devouring fire of 
Gehenna consume it, nor the agonies of the second death 
destroy it ; but that it will survive the wreck of nature 
and the crash of worlds, and throughout all the revolving 
cycles of an unending future, hold on its way unextin- 
guished and inextinguishable, like the life of the self- 
existent God, who gave it being. 

We might reasonably suppose that a doctrine like this, 
when we consider the prominent place that is given to it 
in our theological systems and in the creeds of the 
church, would be found somewhere set forth in the Word 
of God, or at least, that passages might be found that 
would serve as a foundation for such a belief. But so 
far from this, there is not one single passage in all the 
Bible that asserts^ or even intimates any such doctrine. 



164 THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part II. 

The honest advocates of this doctrine are obliged to 
confess that it is a deduction from philosophy, rather 
than from Scripture. And then, by taking these many 
passages of Scripture, that flatly contradict their dogma 
in an extraordinary and metaphorical sense, they would 
fain bring them into harmony with their philosophy. 
But as for finding even one text that asserts it, they can- 
not. When you put them upon their philosophy, they 
are constrained" to acknowledge their inability to de- 
monstrate it. The late President Dwight, of Yale Col- 
lege, in his sermons, Vol. I., p. 163, says : 

" Among Christians I know of but one who has re- 
garded the immortality of the soul as susceptible of 
demonstration. Should we believe with this ingenious 
writer that the soul metaphysically considered is so 
formed as naturally to be immortal, we must still ac- 
knowledge, because it cannot be denied, that its exist- 
ence may terminate at death or at any other supposable 
period. Whatever has been created can certainly be 
annihilated by the power which created it. The contin- 
uance of the soul must therefore depend absolutely on 
the will of God. But that will can never be known by 
creatures unless He is pleased to disclose it. Without 
Revelation therefore, the immortality of the soul must 
be entirely uncertain." 

Very true. And how is it with Revelation ? Neither 
he, nor any other man, has ever been able to find one 
single passage to sustain their doctrine. Let us not be 
misunderstood. It is not the doctrine of Christian im- 
mortality — of immortality or eternal life by a new birth 
through Christ the Saviour, of which we are speaking. 
The Bible is full of this doctrine. It may be found in 
the Old Testament, though not so clearly revealed as in 
the New. It is the special theme of the Gospel, through 
which Life and Immortality are brought to light. But 
it is everywhere emj)hatically declared to be the special 



Chap. IX.] 



INFERENTIAL EVIDENCE. 



1G5 



portion of the redeemed. It is given in the new birth, 
through Christ, and not in the natural birth from Adam. 
This is the point to which the reader's attention is 
especially directed. The Scriptures are not merely 
silent, with reference to this philosophic doctrine of the 
natural immortality of man ; they not merely refrain 
from asserting it, they contradict it in every possible way. 
T \Ve have already sufficiently shown that the Greek adjec- 
tive alamos, signifying eternal, is never, never used to 
qualify the word psuche, which means the natural life or 
soul of man. But it. is only coupled with the word zoe, 
which designates that higher spiritual life, which is given 
in the new birth. In this connection it is employed over 
and over again, scores of times, and is usually translated 
Eternal Life or the Life Everlasting. The same is true 
of the analogous words in the Hebrew. 

1. Xow what do these advocates do when they would 
prove from the Scriptures the immortality of the natural 
man? TThy, they transfer these qualifying adjectives 
from the word zde, to the word psuche, from the word 
signifying the higher spiritual life, which man receives 
only in the second birth, to that signifying the lower 
psychical life, which we all have by the natural birth ; 
They take those passages of Scripture which predicate 
eternal life of the children of God as His peculiar gift, and 
apply them to the whole human family, without any dis- 
tinction of character. In other words, they utterly ignore 
this main distinction which is everywhere made in the 
Scriptures between the regenerate and the unregenerate. 

We have no wish to attribute intentional dishonesty 
to any of our Christian brethren who are so hard pushed 
to sustain their dogma out of the Bible, which so mani- 
festly contradicts it. But we have learned that good 
Christian men, when blinded by error, will take unwar- 



166 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part II. 



ranted liberties with the Scriptures to defend their 
favorite dogmas. This method of proving from the 
Bible the universal immortality of all men, is the same 
that the Universalist employs, to prove the doctrine of 
Universal salvation. After explaining away, as well as 
he can, those texts that directly contradict *his doctrine, 
he takes all those passages that predicate salvation of 
the righteous, and applies them to the righteous and 
wicked alike. In no other way can either believers in 
Universal salvation, or believers in Universal immortal- 
ity make the Scriptures seem to justify their position. 

In proof of what we say, let the reader refer to any 
Bible text book, or collection of Scripture texts to estab- 
lish the various doctrines of the orthodox system, which 
he may have at hand. We turn to the very convenient 
Bible Text Book of the American Tract Society, and we 
find that the judicious compiler under the head of Im- 
mortality cites no texts to prove that this is an attribute 
of man, simply because there are none. He cites only 
those that assert the immortality of God. But in the 
Roman Catholic Catechetical Compendium of Christian 
Doctrine by Rev. Johu Perry, the following instruction is 
given. " What do you mean when you say your soul is 
'immortal ? I mean that my soul can never die. How 
do you know this ? We know it, I. From reason. II. 
From Divine justice. III. From Divine Revelation." 
Under this last head two texts and only two are quoted, 
and both of them from the Book of Wisdom in the 
Apocrypha ! as follows : " God created man incorrupti- 
ble " . . 2 : 23. " The souls of the just are in the hand 
of God, and the torment of death shall not touch them. 
In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die, and their 
going away from us was taken for utter destruction ; but 
they are in peace . . their hope is full of immortality." 



Chap. IX.] INFERENTIAL EVIDENCE. 



167 



3 : 1-4. If the author could hav^ found any texts in the 
Canonical Scriptures he would surely have quoted them. 
But even these two Apocryphal texts give no support to 
the doctrine. It was necessary to garble the first of 
these citations and to omit what immediately follows, or 
its testimony would be seen to be directly against the 
doctrine it is used to support. For the next verse reads : 
"But by the envy of the devil, death came into the 
world ; and they follow him that are of his side." As 
for the second quotation — immortality is declared to be 
the peculiar hope of the just. 

Simmons, in his Scripture Manual, under the title 
Immortality of the Soul, cites these three following 
texts and no other. Let us examine them, and see if 
they sustain this doctrine of universal immortality. 

1. " My sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they fol- 
low Me; And T give unto them Eternal life; and they shall 
never perish, neither shall any pluck them. out of my hand. 
John 10: 27, 28. 

Is it possible that the compiler did not see, or that the 
reader can fail to see, that immortality is here declared 
to be the special portion of Christ's people — the peculiar 
gift of His grace ? He says/' My sheep." " I give un- 
to them Eternal life." Why, instead of being a text to 
prove the immortality of the soul, the psuche\ the natu- 
ral life of man, it is a most emphatic denial of the doc- 
trine. It shows conclusively that it is not a natural gift, 
but a supernatural gift of grace, 

2. "Who will render to every man according to his deeds; 
To those who by patient continuance in well doing, seek for 
glory and honor and immortality? ■ — Eternal life. Rom. 2: 6,7* 

And what shall He render to those who do not " seek 
for glory and honor and immortality"? The Apostle 
goes on to tell us in the twelfth verse, they shall 



168 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



" pebish." This text also, instead of asserting the nat- 
ural immortality of all men, asserts just the contrary 
doctrine — that it is the portion of those only who seek 
for it. 

3. "Who hath saved as and called us with a holy calling, 
not according to our works, but according to His own purpose 
and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus ; but is now 
made manifest, by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ 
who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortal- 
ity to light through the Gospel." 2 Tim. 1 : 9, 10. 

The author refers only to the last clause ; we have 
quoted the verses immediately preceding, with which it 
is intimately connected. Here we have Death and 
Life contrasted, as almost always in the writings of Paul ; 
the one as the natural inheritance of man from Adam, 
the other as the gift of God's grace through Jesus 
Christ. Channing says, " Immortality is the glorious dis- 
covery of Christianity!" Discovery? He should have 
said the glorious gift of Christianity. It was not dis- 
covered by Christianity, as the principle of attraction 
was discovered by Newton, who brought it to light as a 
universal principle of nature which had hitherto been 
only unknown on account of our ignorance. Immortality 
would not have been a fact but for Christianity. It was 
indeed God's purpose, as the Apostle says, " before the 
world began " to immortalize man — to give him Eternal 
Life, if he could be made fit for it ; but not through 
Adam. From him we inherit only death — but only 
through Christ, who hath abolished death and brought 
life and immortality to light — by a second birth and a 
resurrection from the dead. 

Dr. S. C. Bartlett pursues the same method in his 
well-known work, entitled Life and Death Eternal. In 
the second part of the volume, under the head of " A 



Chap. IX.] INFERENTIAL EVIDENCE. 169 

positive disproof of the doctrine of annihilation" he 
occupies a whole chapter in telling of Enoch and Elijah, 
who were translated to heaven, and of Abraham and 
Isaac and Jacob, who were gathered to their fathers in 
peace, of Job and Moses and David and Daniel, and of 
the hopes they entertained of a better life beyond, and 
in quoting their language. We give a few extracts : 

" It is recorded that 4 Enoch walked with God, and 
lie was not, for God took him.' Now it did not require 
the explanation of the writer to the Hebrews to unfold 
the meaning of this statement. A good man who 
walked with God while on earth,— and the fact is twice 
affirmed, — God therefore takes Whither? To annihila- 
tion? To extinction of all conscious joy? Is that the 
mode in which God shows His love for a good man ? 
The thought is ridiculous, He took him to Himself, to 
heaven ; to be with Him on high, with whom he walked 
below. ISo man could miss the meaning. And the 
Sacred writer explains (Heb. 11: 5), 4 He was translated 
that he should not see death. 5 This narrative occurring 
almost at the beginning of the sacred history, is very 
striking and weighty. It gives a key-note to the whole 
strain of the Scriptures." 

He indulges in similar remarks and inquiries in re- 
gard to the Psalmist. In quoting his language of confi- 
dence in God, and of hope for the future in the Psalms, 
he says : 

" How plainly does the writer declare his confidence 
that God, who is his trust, will rescue him from the 
grave, and receive him to eternal joy in his presence," etc. 

Now what is the author's purpose in all this ? Is it to 
give the impression that those who believe in " con- 
ditional immortality," deny the Eternal Life of the 
righteous ? He knows that this is the very doctrine we 
most emphatically assert, and that these are the very 
texts we bring to prove it. Is it because he thinks by 
showing that because the righteous have the hope of 
8 



170 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part lie 



Eternal Life, the wicked may therefore indulge the 
same hope, in spite of the uniform declaration of the 
Scriptures to the contrary ? Is it not rather because he 
can find no texts in the Bible to serve the purpose of his 
argument in favor of the immortality of the wicked; 
and so, to gain his point, he must ignore and break 
down the very distinction which is everywhere made in 
the Word of God between the portion of the righteous 
and of the wicked? If he would quote Scripture to 
any good purpose on this point, let him show that not 
merely Abel and Enoch and Noah left this world in the 
hope of an immortal life beyond, but that all of the 
fathers before the Flood, of whom it is said that " every 
imagination of the thoughts of their hearts was only 
evil and that continually," were swept away, having the 
same assurance ; that not merely Abraham and Isaac 
and Jacob were gathered to their fathers in peace, in 
the hope of a better resurrection, but that the beastly 
inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, who were con- 
sumed by fire from heaven, as unfit to live any longer on 
earth, were not destroyed, but only transferred to another 
fire below that shall prey upon them forever without 
consuming them ; that Pharaoh and his magicians, as 
well as Moses and Aaron ; that Saul as well as Samuel 
and David ; and Ahab and Jezebel as well as Elijah and 
Elisha; that the false prophets as well as Daniel and 
Isaiah had the assurance — the same assurance of an im- 
mortal life beyond the present. But there are no such 
texts in God's Word ; and every Bible Scholar knows it ; 
and every honest expounder of God's Word will acknowl- 
edge it ; and though the lack of such texts may prove a 
serious inconvenience to him, in the labor of proving 
that saints and sinners are alike immortal, he will not 
attempt to catch those who confidingly look to him for 



Chap. IX.] REFERENTIAL EVIDENCE. 



171 



instruction "with guile," by making the Scriptures seem 
to teach what he knows they do not teach. 

Dr. George Dana Boardman, in his Creative Week, 
frankly says : e< Not a single passage of Holy Writ from 
Genesis to Revelation teaches, so far as I am aware, the 
doctrine of man's natural immortality. On the other 
hand, Holy Writ emphatically declares that God only 
hath immortality." So Olshausen says in his commen- 
tary on Luke, sixteenth chapter; "The Bible knows not 
either the expression c immortality of the soul ' or the 
modern doctrine of immortality." 

The author of Life in Christ well says on this point : 

" In no single instance do we discover in the book of 
Psalms or in the poetical books, or in the book of col- 
lected Proverbs or weighty sayings of the wise, the ex- 
pression of the Socratic hope of eternal life founded on 
man's essential nature as eternal. The hope of Life is 
restricted to righteous men ; to the true servants of 
God, There is not one ray of hope of an eternal future, 
which shines on the head of a rebel in the Old Testa- 
ment. The immortality of the nephesh was a specula- 
tion unknown to the saints and prophets. 6 All the 
wicked will He destroy. 5 6 When the wicked do spring 
as the grass, and all the workers of iniquity do flourish; 
it is that they shall be destroyed forever.' Xo man lives 
forever but in God." 

2. There is another way, which those who are skilled 
in dialectics have, of reading this doctrine of natural im- 
mortality into the Word of God. They say it is 
" assumed " to be a fact by the inspired writers of the 
Bible, that Moses and the prophets, that Christ and the 
Apostles, took it for granted, as a truth too evident to 
require any formal statement, that : 

" It was not alone because the fact was admitted and 
might be assumed, but also because they were charged 
with messages of such tremendous import concerning 
the character and condition of that endless existence, as 



172 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



quite to throw into the background the abstract propo- 
sition of the soul's immortality. . . . To them the naked 
question of immortality, aside from these relations and 
issues, was of no account at all — no more than the life of 
an oyster." {Life and Death Eternal, pp. 191, 192.) 

So says Archbishop Tillotson {Sermon 100): "The 
immortality of the soul is rather supposed or taken for 
granted, than exj)ressly revealed in the Bible." 

So also the Presbyterian Quarterly (1860, p. 600) : 
"The Bible generally assumes the immortality of the 
soul, as it does the existence of GodP 

This may be regarded as a very adroit and ingenious 
way of escaping from the necessity of proving the doc- 
trine that is confidently declared to be taught in the 
Scriptures ; but is it honest ? Is it fair treatment of the 
inspired volume ? 

In this way any doctrine not taught in the Scriptures, 
yea one which is emphatically contradicted by them, might 
be charged upon them. How do these advocates know 
that it is " assumed " by these sacred writers ? Who has 
authorized them to say this ? Why should a Divine Rev- 
elation, the very object of which is to enlighten us on 
this very point, assume it as a fact, without declaring it ? 
This is the fundamental question that needs first to be 
well established u will the sinner live forever ? " before 
" the conditions of that endless existence " are spoken of. 

Is the immortality of the sinner so much more evident 
than that of his Creator, that it may be assumed, while 
that of the Creator needs to be asserted with constant 
reiteration ? He is called the " Ever-living God," " the 
Eternal God," " the Everlasting Father," the one " who 
is and was, and ever shall be," — "whose years have no 
end" "who liveth forever," etc., etc. The very title by 
which He chooses to make Himself known to us is Je- 



Chap. IX.] INFERENTIAL EVIDENCE. 



173 



hoyah or Jah, which means the Self-existing, Ever-living 
one — This is His most common designation and occurs 
hundreds and hundreds of times in the Old Testament 
and should have been so rendered instead of by the words 
"The Lord," which our translators have improperly sub- 
stituted. While on the other hand the title wdiich God 
Himself has given to man is " Adam " — earth-made. It 
is just on this very point that the Creator contrasts Him- 
self with the creature. " I kill and I make alive, neither 
is there any that can deliver out of my hand ; for I lift 
my hand up to heaven and say I live forever." Shall 
puny man earth-made, " whose breath is in his nostrils " 
also lift up his hand to heaven and say " I too live for- 
ever ! ! " No, no. It is not assumed by these Inspired 
Teachers ; but by these philosophers. They would fain 
read it into the Word of God in spite of its plainest 
teaching to the contrary. In this, shall we not say — how- 
ever honest they may be, they are the servants, though 
indeed unwittingly, yet nevertheless actually, of him who 
first uttered the doctrine ? We cannot doubt that if he 
was now here, as he was in Eden, he would exclaim, 
" This is exactly my doctrine" " Ye shall not surely die, 
ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil forever ! " 

There are many other points under this head of Infer- 
ential Evidence, to which we would be glad to call 
attention ; but we cannot make room for their discussion 
in this brief condensed volume. They are considered 
somewhat at length in the author's larger volume, The 
Life Everlasting. 

It ought to be remarked, before closing this chapter, 
that there are some half a dozen passages of Scripture 
that are very generally supposed to teach, by implication 
or inference, the doctrine of immortality in sin and suf- 
fering, and upon which, the advocates of the doctrine 



174 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part II. 



principally rely to support their position. These will be 
considered by themselves, in a subsequent chapter, after 
we have listened to the direct and explicit testimony of 
the Word of God to the doctrine for which we stand, 
that Death, actual and utter death is the common inher- 
itance of all the children of Adam, and that immortality 
or Eternal Life is the gift of God's grace through Jesus 
Christ, and is received only by a new birth and a resur- 
rection from the dead. 



CHAPTER X. 



The Death Incurred. 

We have seen how that man was originally endowed 
with alternative possibilities, that there were within him, 
as in an evenly adjusted balance, two jDrinciples contend- 
ing for the mastery ; the one spiritual and heavenly ; the 
other carnal and earthly. Through the one he might, if 
he should so choose, look upward by faith to his Maker, 
and become permanently united to Him, and thus come 
into fellowship w r ith those holy creatures that surround 
His throne, and share in their immortal destiny; or 
through the other, he might look downward to this earth, 
and unite himself, through the senses, with the perishable 
creatures of this world and share in their lot. He would 
be a spiritual and deathless creature, or a carnal and dy- 
ing creature, according as the one or the other should 
predominate. We have seen how "the world and the 
flesh and the devil " prevailed to drag him downward, 
and he became a soulical, mortal man, and the progenitor 
of a race like himself. Now the Holy Law of God pos- 
sesses this same twofold character ; a spiritual and a soul- 
ical significance, adapting it to both or either of these 
two natures in man. In losing his spiritual life — if he 
can properly be said ever to have actually had a spiritual 
life in his natural state — at any rate, in forfeiting his spir- 
itual life through sin and coming under the spiritual 
penalty, which made him a mortal, he lost the sense of its 
spiritual character, as he did of everything else that was 
spiritual, and came directly under this law in its temporal 

175 



176 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



application. The law itself lost none of its spiritual 
character, though it passed into desuetude or eclipse, to 
be again uncovered by Christ when He should come to 
bring to light the doctrine of spiritual life and immortal- 
ity to man by a new birth. 

No intelligent reader can have failed to observe how 
pre-eminently, if not exclusively temporal and earthly, 
the Old Testament dispensation is, when compared with 
the Xew. The rewards, the penalties, the blessings and 
curses of the law seem to be confined to this life, and 
were so understood by the great mass of those who lived 
under it. Health, prosperity, abundant harvests ; long 
life, a numerous posterity ; the favor of God and a peace- 
ful death were the blessings promised to the obedient ; 
and the reverse of all these to the disobedient. 

Yet all these sanctions are capable of a twofold sense. 
They have a higher application, which was, no doubt in- 
tended, even though this were not apprehended by those 
who had no spiritual discernment, an application which 
Christ brought to light, when He came — an application 
of which the Old Testament saints got glimpses, more or 
less clear, and which grew more and more perfect as 
they drew near to the light of the Gospel day. But not 
merely the righteous came to have anticipation of " some 
better thing " awaiting them beyond this life yet to be 
revealed, but the wicked also came to have more and 
more distinct forebodings of evil bevond the grave to 
disturb their security in sin. To the one, the many 
promises of Life, which abound in the Old Testament, 
as well as in the New, seemed like the dawning of 
"light that ariseth in darkness"; to the other, the 
threatening^ of Death, which are equally numerous, 
were like the rumblings of thunder from behind the 
dark cloud, which their vision could not penetrate. As 



Chap. X.] 



THE DEATH INCURRED. 



177 



we come down the track of ages, these intimations grow 
more and more distinct, till they culminate under the 
Gospel, in a full announcement of Resurrection from the 
dead, a Judgment to come, and a Second Liee — one 
that is spiritual and eternal — for the righteous, and a 
Second Death — one that knows no waking forever — 
for the wicked. 

In contemplating the Divine Law and its penalty, as 
given to the Ancient Hebrews, through Moses, we should 
hear in mind, that God sustained a peculiar threefold 
relation to them ; — tharof a Temporal Ruler taking cogni- 
zance of their physical and social affairs ; that of a King 
over them in their collective and national capacity ; and 
that of a Spiritual Sovereign, claiming as He does of all 
men the homage of their hearts. Xow whether we view 
the sanctions of the Mosaic law as applicable to the in- 
dividual, as regards this life, or to the Jewish people 
collectively, as a nation, or as having a deeper spiritual 
significance, the rewards and the penalties, are one and 
the same. The same words, Life and Death are used to 
express them. It is not always easy to tell in which of 
the three senses to apply them ; nor does it seem to be 
intended that Ave should apply them exclusively in one 
sense. The mass of the people, in their darkness and 
ignorance, gave them, at first, no doubt, a temporal appli- 
cation. But under the instructions of Moses, and the 
prophets — God-inspired teachers — they came gradually 
to see and feel that they had a broader and deeper sig- 
nification than lay on the surface. These words, "Life," 
and " Death," which were constantly uttered in their 
hearing, became pregnant with meaning. They seemed 
to reach beyond the present world, and were full of hope 
and cheer to the righteous, and equally full of fearful 

forebodings and of terror to the wicked. 
8 * 



178 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GTET. 



[Part II. 



If we contemplate this law in its temporal and physical 
aspects only, we cannot fail to notice how prominently 
this penalty of Death is set forth. Those methods of 
corporal punishment, such as imprisonment, torture, etc., 
that are common to other governments, are hardly 
known — if known at all under the Mosaic code. But 
Death is the one chief penalty. The penalty for Adul- 
tery was Death; for Blasphemy, Death; for Bearing 
False Witness, Death; for Idolatry, Death; for Incest, 
Death; for Man-stealing, Death; for Sabbath-breaking, 
Death; for Rape, Death ; for Unchastity, Death; for 
Witchcraft, Death, etc. Death was such an almost uni- 
versal penalty that those who do not consider its signifi- 
cance regard it as unreasonable and barbarous. The 
mystery can only be explained by the fact, that Jehovah 
was not simply their Temporal, but also their Spiritual 
Ruler, and that the penalty of Death had a double sig- 
nificance, and was meant to have an application to both 
this life, and the life of the world to come. 

The same is true, as regards the penalty of sin, in 
their national capacity. While the blessings of contin- 
ued life, and prosperity under the favor of God were 
promised to them as a people, so long as they should be 
loyal and obedient to their Heavenly Ruler ; the severest 
curses ending in death and utter extinction as a nation, 
were threatened in case they should turn away from 
Him, and reject His righteous authority and government. 
The curses and calamities and miseries, that should come 
upon them, and continue until they should be utterly de- 
stroyed and extinguished as a nation, are set forth in 
fearful array, in the closing chapters of the book of Deu- 
teronomy. The catalogue is too long to be transferred 
to these pages. The simple point to which we wish to 
call attention is this : That the awful calamities and mis- 



Chap. X.] 



THE DEATH INCURRED. 



179 



eries predicted were to find their culmination and end in 
their utter destruction as a nation. As in the case of our 
first parents and their posterity, as individuals, sorrow 
and pain were to mark their whole course of departure 
from God, till they should return to the dust from whicli 
they came ; such would be the sorrowful downward 
course of this disobedient people. These sorrows were 
but the preludes to their complete destruction, and the 
means by which it was accomplished. They all pointed 
and led to that final result, namely : utter ruin and ex- 
termination and extinction. 

But many of the threatenings of the law, are evi- 
dently too broad and inclusive to admit of any mere 
earthly or national application. They are directed 
against the sinning individual in the totality of his being. 
They include, most evidently all that he has or is, both 
in his physical and spiritual nature, both for this life and 
the life to come. But the same language is used in any 
and every case alike. The sanctions of the law, whether 
we regard it as a natural, or civil, or spiritual law are the 
same. They are Life or Death; Life or Death; Life 
or Death. The temporal sanctions of God's law were 
intended to typify and enforce those that are spiritual, 
and which are more fully brought to light under the 
Gospel, 

This Divine law must be self-consistent. Life and 
Death are antithetical terms, and they must be so under- 
stood in whatever relation they are taken. Death must 
be the loss or ending: or extinguishment of whatever life 
is in question. If mere physical life is spoken of, then 
death must mean the ending of all physical life. If na- 
tional life is spoken of, then death must mean the loss of 
national life. If psychical or spiritual life is spoken of, 
then death must mean the extinguishment of all psychi- 



180 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



cal life. If the life of this world is spoken of, then 
death must mean the loss of an earthly life. If the life 
of the world to come, which the Scriptures tell us is 
Immortal, then death must mean the loss of the life of 
the world to come, or of immortality. 

All this is so reasonable and evident that it would 
seem unnecessary to say it ; but we are obliged to insist 
on it with special emphasis, because this is just where 
the advocates of the deathless nature of man endeavor 
to break the force of the passages we are about to cite, 
and escape from the conclusion to which if honestly ac- 
cepted, they would inevitably lead them. They cannot 
but admit that death, when predicated of man in his 
relation to this world, implies the complete loss of all 
sensitive animal life. F3ut when the same thing is predi- 
cated of him, in his relations to the other world, it cannot 
mean the same thing, they say ; and why not ? Simply 
because their philosophy of the deathless nature of man 
forbids them to understand it in this sense. It compels 
them to give another meaning to this word, death. It 
means " separation from God " ; "loss of Divine favor 
« irregular functional action " ; " devitalizedness " ; " a 
state of sin and misery," etc., etc., anything and every- 
thing dreadful, but just what it does actually mean — 
Death, the extinction of life itself. 

We must protest in the name of truth and reason 
against such conjuring with this plain Scriptural word, 
at the bidding of a pagan philosophy — using it like the 
fabulous tent in the Arabian Nights, which was so elastic, 
that it could serve for a single man and be carried in his 
pocket, or stretched over a whole army, just as conven- 
ience might require. 

Let us now give our attention to a few of the many 
passages scattered through the Bible, first in the Old Tes- 



Chap, X.] 



THE DEATH INCURRED, 



181 



tament, and then in the New, that explicitly set forth 
this doctrine that Death and Destruction are the portion 
of the wicked. 

I. The Old Testa, neat. 

The words of warning " Ye shall surely die" uttered 
by Jehovah in the beginning ; then the announcement to 
Adam of the fatal consequences of his sin, " Dust thou 
art and unto dust shalt thou return" ; then the record 
of his exclusion from the Tree of Life, and the reason 
for it, "Test he put forth his hand and talce also of the 
Tree of Life and Lite Foeever," upon which we have 
already sufficiently commented, ought to be sufficient to 
establish our thesis, that man cannot lice forever in sin ; 
that since the fall he is altogether mortal, and must die. 
We forbear to quote the many passages found in the 
Pentateuch, especially in Deuteronomy, in which Moses 
warned and threatened, and entreated the Israelites, 
using the words destroy, and perish, and die, and be 
brought to naught, etc., with all possible emphasis, — lest 
the objector should say, they were used only in a politi- 
cal sense. But referring to the book of Job, we find 
such utterances as these : 

s< The candle of the wicked shall be put out.*' 

" They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the 
storm drive th away." 

t: They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall 
cover them.*' 

" The wicked is reserved to the day of destruction." 

"By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of His 
nostrils they are consumed." 

" He shall perish forever like his own dung." 

if He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, 
he shall be chased away as a vision of the night." 

' ; If He set His heart upon man, if He gather unto Himself 
his spirit, and his breath, all flesh shall perish together, and 
man shall turn again to dust." 



182 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



" He cometli forth as a flower, and is cut down ; he fleeth al- 
so as a shadow, and continueth not." 

" There is hope of a tree if it be cut down, that it will sprout 
again,— -but man dieth and waste th away, yea, man giveth up 
the ghost, and where is he ? " 

44 As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decay eth and 
drieth up, so man lieth down and riseth not. Till the heavens 
be no more, they shall not awake nor be raised out of their 
sleep." 

The book of Psalms is full of such passages as the 
following : 

44 The way of the ungodly shall perish." 

44 They are like the chaff which the wind driveth away." 

44 Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing. " 

44 The wicked shall be turned into hell (sheol), and all the 
nations that forget God." 

44 The wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall 
be as the fat of lambs; they shall consume; into smoke shall 
they consume away." 

44 As wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at 
the presence of God." 

4 'Forlo; they that are far from Thee shall perish. When 
the wicked do spring as the grass, and all the workers of 
iniquity do flourish, it is that they shall be destroyed forever." 

* 4 Forlo! thine enemies, O Lord, forlo! thine enemies shall 
perish." 

* 4 For yet a little while and the wicked shall not be." 

"His breath goeth forth; he returneth to the earth; in that 
very day his thoughts perish." 

'•The redemption of their soul [nephesh, life] is precious, and 
it [whether 'it' refers to soul or redemption the thought is the 
same] ceaseth forever." 

44 None of them can by any means redeem his brother, or give 
to God a ransom for him, that he should still live forever and 
not see corruption" 

44 For he seeth that the wise men die, likewise the fool and 
the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others." 
44 Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for- 
ever, and their dwelling places to all generations ; nevertheless, 
man being in honor abideth not; he is like the beasts that perish." 



Chap. X.] 



THE DEATH INCURRED. 



183 



u Like sheep they are laid in the grave (sheol), death shall feed 
on them, and the upright shall have dominion over them in the 
morning [there may be a hint here of a resurrection, and of an 
eternal life for the righteous, but surely of no such life for the 
wicked, for he goes on to say] He shall go to the generations 
of his fathers; they shall never see light." 

4 'Man that is in honor and understandeth not, is like the 
beasts that perish." 

"Let sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the 
wicked be no more" 

Solomon says in the book of Proverbs : 

" The lamp of the wicked shall be put out." 
"His destruction cometh as a whirlwind." 
" He that speaketh lies shall perish." 

" He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall sud- 
denly be destroyed, and that without remedy." 

" The expectation [tikvah, thread of life] of the wicked shall 
be cut off." 

" There shall be no reward for literally acharith, no hereafter, 
no futurity] to the wicked. The candle of the wicked shall be 
put out" [what does this mean but that his life shall be extin- 
guished ? J 

The prophets tell us : 

" The soul that sinneth, it shall die." 

" The destruction of transgressors and of sinners shall be to- 
gether, and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed" 
" He shall be utterly cut off." 

" They shall be as though they had not been " [can this be any- 
thing short of annihilation?] 

" They shall be as nothing." [What then will remain?] 

" They that strive against thee shall perish." 

" For behold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and 
all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble ; 
and the day that cometh, shall bum them up, saith the Lord 
of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root or branch" [can 
any words be stronger than these to indicate the complete and 
utter destruction of the wicked?] 

Some of these expressions may be understood as hav- 
ing a mere temporal application ; but it is impossible to 



184 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



interpret them all in this way. We who are accustomed 
to read the Old Testament in the light of the New, can, 
perhaps, see a deeper meaning in them, than those to 
whom they were immediately addressed ; but even they 
must have known and felt that their meaning was not 
exhausted this side of the grave. When the Law of 
God w^as revealed to the children of Israel, in such awful 
terrors from Mount Sinai, and Life and Death were set 
before them, and they were exhorted to " choose Life 
that they might live " / when again, the twelve tribes 
were set over against each other, half of them on Mount 
Ebal, and half on Mount Gerizim, and the one party was 
made to utter the blessings, and the other the curses of 
the Law, and each to respond to the other, " Amen " ; 
when Jeremiah, the prophet solemnly warns and exhorts 
them in the name of the Lord, saying : " Behold I have 
set before you the way of Life and the way of Death " ; 
again, when Ezekiel expostulates with them, saying by 
Divine command : " As I live, saith the Lord, I have no 
pleasure in the Death of the wicked, but let the wicked 
turn from his way and live ; Turn ye, turn ye, for why 
vrill ye die ? " / and when, on other occasions substantially 
the same language was addressed to them, they must 
have known, and felt that something more than temporal 
life and temporal death was meant. For they could not 
hope to prolong their own life beyond its ordinary limit, 
nor to escape natural death. Surely these holy men 
were not mocking them with these words without mean- 
ing. What else could they have meant by exhorting 
them to choose life that they might live, but the Eternal 
Life of the world to come which is given to the right- 
eous only, and which is more fully brought to light in the 
Gospel ? and what, by that death which they are warned 
to turn from, but the Second Death in the all-consuming 



Chap. X.] 



THE DEATH INCURRED. 



185 



fire of Gehenna, to which the wicked will be consigned 
in the day of judgment, of which Christ and the iSTew 
Testament writers speak more clearly ? To this Testa- 
ment we now turn. 

II. The New Testament. 

The passages which foretell, either in direct language or 
by figures of speech, the utter and everlasting destruc- 
tion of the wicked are very numerous. TVe shall be able 
to find room for only a portion of them. Those we shall 
cite ought to establish the doctrine for which we con- 
tend, if it be possible to express it in Scripture language : 

Matt. 3: 10, 12. " Now also the axe is laid unto the root of 
the trees. Therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good 
fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. . . Whose fan is in 
His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather 
the wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with 
unquenchable fire." [Fire is not a preserving, but a consum- 
ing element. These fruitless trees, this worthless chaff, are 
cast into it, to be consumed utterly. It is called "unquench- 
able" because it cannot be arrested or prevented from doing its 
work. So the wicked are to be burned up, utterly consumed by 
the unquenchable fire of Gehenna.] 

10: 28. ' 1 Fear not them which kill the body, but are not 
able to kill the soul {psuche), but rather fear Him who is able 
to destroy {apolesai) both soul and body in [Gehenna, not 
Hades] hell." [The first death does not put a final end to the 
man. But the second death, which God Himself inflicts when 
He casts the sinner into Gehenna, destroys all there is of him, 
soul and body, This Gehenna was the place just outside the 
walls of Jerusalem, where a fire was kept constantly burning, 
to consume the offal of the city that was cast into it; hence it 
was a fit type of that Gehenna, or lake of fire, into which the 
wicked were to be cast, to be utterly consumed.] 

13:38-40. " The field is the world; the good seed are the 
children of the kingdom ; but the tares are the children of the 
wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil, the 
harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels. 
As therefore, the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part. II. 



shall it be in the end of the world. The Son of Man shall send 
forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all 
things that offend, and them which do iniquity ; and shall cast 
them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing 
of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the 
kingdom of their Father." [What language could be framed 
to express more definitely and vividly the utter destruction of 
the wicked at the last day, and the preservation of the right- 
eous only, than this ? The wicked are cast into this furnace of 
fire, not to be tormented forever, but for the same purpose 
that the tares are cast into it. That torment will accompany 
their destruction and that there will be wailing and gnashing 
of teeth is not to be doubted, but this is only incidental to the 
main object, which is their miserable and complete destruction.] 

Luke 9: 56. 44 For the Son of Man is not come to destroy 
men's lives, but to save them." [Not in the sense of saving 
them from dying, but from the utter loss of life.] 

Luke Vd: 1-5. "There were present at that season, some 
that told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had 
mingled with the sacrifices. Now Jesus answering, said unto 
them, " Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all 
Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you nay; 
but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish (osautos 
apoleisthe) or those eighteen upon wbom the tower of Siloam 
fell and slew them; think ye that they were sinners above all 
men that dwelt in Jerusalem ? I tell you nay; but except ye 
repent ye shall all likewise perish (omoids apoleisthe). [This 
cannot mean that they would lose their lives in the same way, 
by the cruelty of Pilate, or by the falling of another tower, for 
in this case the prediction was not fulfilled. Something more 
than a violent natural death is meant, most evidently. They 
should actually perish, if they did not repent.] 

John 15: 5, 6. " For without me (apart from me) ye can do 
nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a 
branch, and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and 
they are [tormented forever ? no, but] burned." [There is no 
Eternal Life out of Christ.] 

Acts 8: 23. " Every soul which will not hear that Prophet 
(Christ) shall be destroyed from among the people." 

8: 20. "Thy money perish with thee." [The same phrase 
eie eis apoleian-—go to destruction is predicated of both Simon 
and his money.] 



Chap. X.] 



THE DEATH INCURRED. 



187 



Rom. 2: 12. " As many as have sinned without law shall also 
perish without law." [Observe the word is perish not be pun- 
ished, as Dr. Bartlett quotes it in one of his essays. We are not 
punished for being the children of Adam, though we have all 
become mortal and perishable through him. We are punished 
only for our own sins. But as mortal men, whatever be our 
moral character, we can only have Eternal Life through Christ 
the Second Adam — our Saviour.] 

6: 21. " For the end of those things [fleshly lusts] is death." 
[Those who practice them are even now '* spiritually dead " as 
it is called, but they lead down to actual death in the end.] 

7: 5. " For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin 
which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth 
fruit unto [misery? no] death," 

9: 22. " Vessels of wrath fitted to destruction." [Fit for noth- 
ing else, and unless saved by Christ this must be their end.] 

1 Cor. 15: 17. ''If Christ be not raised, they also which are 
fallen asleep in Christ [as well as those who have died out of 
Christ] are perished. [This would be the common lot of all 
men, had not Christ died and risen again.] 

2 Cor. 4: 3. " But if our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that 
are lost." [In other words, they from whom this gospel is 
hidden are in a lost or perishable condition.] 

Phil. 3: 16. " Whose end (telos) is destruction." [What can 
be more final than the end f Whatever miseries come upon 
men in the pathway of sin, the end of it all is destruction — as 
is said in the next following verse.] 

2 Thes. 1: 9. "Who shall be punished with everlasting de- 
struction, from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of 
His power, when He shall come." [From this we see that ever- 
lasting punishment is not necessarily everlasting torment — 
but utter destruction forever. ] 

2 Thes. 2: 10. " With all deceivableness of unrighteousness 
in them that perish, because they received not the love of the 
truth that they might be saved." 

1 Tim. 6: 5. " Foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men 
in destruction and perdition." [Olethron kai apoleian, two of 
the strongest words in the Greek language to express utter, 
total, complete ruination or destruction.] 

Heb. 6: 4-8. " For it is impossible, if they (who were once 
enlightened, etc., etc.), shall fall away, to renew them again 



188 THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part II. 



imto repentance whose end is to be burned." [The Scrip- 
tures again and again assure us that this is the disposition that 
will finally be made of those who will not, or cannot be saved 
— they shall be burned up as chaff. J 

10: 26. " For if we sin willfully after we have received the 
knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for 
sin, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery in- 
dignation, which shall devour the adversaries." 12: 29. "For 
our God is a consuming fire." ["A consuming fire," not 
merely torments but consumes. There may be torment in the 
process, but it ends in consumption. It would not be possible 
to express in language more definitely or forcibly the doctrine 
for which we are contending — that the unsaved will be utterly 
and forever destroyed — and not, as our opponents say, kept 
alive, to be eternally tormented.] 

James 1: 15. " Sin when it is finished bringeth forth death." 
[Not simply misery; this is its more immediate effect; but like 
a fatal disease it does not stop short of death.] 

James 5: 20. "Let him know that he which converteth a 
sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death, 
and hide a multitude of sins." [If unconverted souls are liable 
to death they cannot be deathless.] 

2 Pet. 2: 12. "But these as natural brute beasts, made to 
be taken and destroyed, shall utterly perish in their own cor- 
ruption." 

3: 7-9. "But the heavens that now are, and the earth, by 
the same word, have been stored up for fire, being reserved 
against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men." 
" The Lord is not slack concerning His promise — but is long- 
suffering — not willing that any should perish, but that all should 

come to repentance." "They wrest the Scriptures to their 

own destruction." 

1 John 3: 15. "No murderer hath eternal life abiding in 
him." [Then surely he cannot be immortal.] 

Rev. 20: 12. " And I saw the dead small and great, stand be- 
fore God, and the books were opened, and another book was 
opened which is the Book of Life ; and the dead were judged 
out of those things which were written in the book, according 
to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in 
it; and death and [Hades) hell delivered up the dead which 
were in them; and they were judged every man according to 



Chap. X.] THE DEATH INCURRED. 



189 



their works. And Death and Hell (Thanatos and Hades) were 
cast into the lake of fire. This is the Second Death. And 
whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast 
into the lake of fire." [It will be observed that this is after, 
not during what is called the intermediate state. Even were 
we to suppose this Hadean or intermediate state to be a state 
of conscious suffering for the wicked— here is the end even of 
death and Hades ; and all are cast together into this all-consum- 
ing lake of fire. Then to assure us that this is the literal de- 
struction of death and hell, we are told in the verses immedi- 
ately followiug that there is " no more death, neither sorrow, 
nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former 
things have passed away." Who shall venture to say, in spite 
of all this, that Death and hell shall not be destroyed, and that 
sorrow and crying and pain shall never come to an end?] 

This sad array of Scripture passages all pointing in 
one direction, and leading to one conclusion, might be 
greatly enlarged. Indeed, we shall have occasion to 
quote others of the same tenor, when we come to show 
the contrast which is drawn between the lot of the right- 
eous and that of the wicked. But the above ought to 
suffice for our purpose, if the testimony of God's Word is 
good for anything on this question. If the force of these 
can be evaded, and their meaning explained away, then 
no doctrine can be proved from God's Word to the satis- 
faction of those who are opposed to it. For this truth 
for which we contend is asserted in every way in which 
it is possible for language to assert it, positively and neg- 
atively, literally and metaphorically, by parable and by 
every variety of figure of speech. The wicked are said 
not only to die, to perish, to be destroyed, etc., etc., but 
also to be burned up, like chaff and stubble ; to be utterly 
consumed root and branch ; to be dashed in pieces as a 
potter* s vessel; to be ground to powder ; to be thrown 
away as bad fish; to be thrown down like a house with- 
out foundation ; to wither like a branch that has been 



190 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part -II. 



cut off; to consume away into smoke as the fat of rams; 
to perish like brutes in their own corruption ; to become 
as ashes under the feet of the righteous ; to be devoured ; 
to be as nothing ; to be as though they had not been ; to 
be no more; not to be, etc., etc. While these fearful 
figures express pain and suffering, and extreme anguish, 
as was doubtless intended, and in some cases perhaps, 
prolonged agony, they express more than this ; they ex- 
press death and utter destruction as the end, and grand 
consummation of all these inflictions of Divine wrath. 

But Dr. Bartlett and others for whom he speaks, ob- 
ject to any such understanding of these figures. He 
says the principle is unsound. And why ? This is his 
reason : 

" Its unsoundness appears at once from the fact that it 
necessarily cuts off the possibility of imaging forth any 
other penal transaction than a transient one, and forcibly 
turns all such representations into images of extinction 
[of course it does] for the reason that every process in a 
temporal world is temporary, and each process here that 
is most terrific and painful is incidentally short-lived." 
(Life and Death Eternal, p. 284.) 

Verily this is a strange confession for one to make, 
who is sincerely endeavoring to ascertain what the Scrip- 
tures teach concerning the destiny of the wicked ! If 
these vivid pictures of their complete and utter destruc- 
tion are to be taken as true pictures — as meaning what 
they seem to mean, why, his own doctrine of eternal sin 
and suffering must certainly be false. But this he can- 
not and will not allow. By what testimony, then, we 
ask, can his dogma be disproved ? In what way would 
they have this doctrine expressed — if it were true? 
What language would be strong enough and explicit 
enough to convince him and those of his school ? They 
admit that there is no proof of their dogma in philoso- 



Chap. X.] 



THE DEATH INCURRED. 



191 



phy, and that their main reliance must be on the Word 
of God. But when we show them that they have no 
warrant whatever for it in the Word of God, and when 
we cite to them text after text in long array, positively 
contradicting their dogma, they know how to explain 
them all away to their own satisfaction, and perhaps to 
the satisfaction of those who are not willing to receive 
the truth as it is taught in the Scriptures — like practiced 
acrobats they are able to leap over any barrier that can 
be raised, and come down on their feet as firmly as ever. 
These Scripture texts are no more to them, than the 
paper-covered hoops, that are put before the equestrian 
performers in the circus. They plunge through them 
and drop into their saddles again, as though there had 
been nothing in their way. 

We quote to them the words of the Serpent, " Ye 
shall not surely die — ye shall be as gods knowing good 
and evil," and tell them that this is exactly their doc- 
trine ; and they think that we are very ungracious to 
class them with the Great Deceiver. We are indeed 
sorry, very sorry to do it ; but if they will take up his 
doctrine and repeat it as their own, in flat contradiction 
of God's Word, they must take the consequences. It is 
no fault of ours. What else did Satan teach but this 
very doctrine— the immortality of the sinner ? 

Again we show them, that the Scriptures are abso- 
lutely silent in regard to any such doctrine as the natural 
immortality of man — or the soul of man, as they phrase 
it — and which they declare to be "one of the funda- 
mental principles of the Christian system." And they 
reply : " No matter ; it is too evident to need to be 
asserted by these sacred writers. They " assume " it to 
be true. " To them the naked question of immortality, 
aside from these relations and issues, is of no account, 
at all — no more than the life of an oyster " 



192 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part II. 



We point then to the Divine institution of sacrifices, 
in which the offerer is made to acknowledge the for- 
feiture of his own life in the death of the victim he 
offers to God ; and to the Great Sacrifice on Calvary — of 
which these animal sacrifices are the types, where the Son 
of God gave up His own pure life to redeem us from 
death; and we are told, that these sacrifices represent 
only the death of the body — as for the soul, it cannot 
die ; it is immortal. 

Then we quote to them the familiar text, " The Soul 
that sinneth it shall die," and a multitude of other texts 
equally explicit, and they reply that death when predi- 
cated of the soul does not mean actual but only spiritual 
death, which separates the sinner from God — a forlorn, 
wretched, hopeless condition of being, in which the 
sinner continues to live or "exist," to sin and suffer 
forever. 

We then refer them to another numerous class of 
passages, in which sinners are represented as being cast 
into Gehenna to be consumed, soul and body together ; 
which declare that they shall be burned up with un- 
quenchable fire as the chaff of the threshing floor, as the 
useless tares or as stubble. 

And they say : " O, no, you must not take these fig- 
urative illustrations in any literal sense } for they are 
' images of extinction] they illustrate £ temporary pro- 
cesses] it necessarily cuts us off f rom the possibility of 
applying them to the case of the soul that cannot die, 
that cannot be consumed, that cannot be extinguished so 
that it shall cease to sin and suffer, as we hold." So it 
does, and so it was meant to do. The fact is, the fault 
is not in these figurative illustrations, but in the doctrine 
itself. If they will accept neither the literal nor the 
figurative language of Scripture, in all its varied forms 



Chap. X.] 



THE DEATH INCURRED. 



193 



of expression, when it contradicts their dogma, then 
what authority has the Word of God over them ; what 
can it have on this question ? Would it not be more 
honorable and more honest to close this Sacred volume 
and to acknowledge what is so evidently true, that they 
hold this dogma as a self-evident truth, that no testi- 
mony whatever can disprove ? 



Note. Since the above chapter was written, the long-ex- 
pected New Congregational Creed,— prepared and concurred in 
by twenty-three out of a committee of twenty-Jive Doctors of 
Divinity, selected for this purpose, by the authority of the Tri- 
ennial Congregational Convention as representing all the 
different shades of belief in their denomination, after more 
than three years of consultation. — has been given to the public. 
Of course, as a compromise, it could hardly be expected to 
express definitely and satisfactorily the peculiar views of any 
one individual. But we had hoped that these learned doctors, 
under the circumstances, would content themselves with a 
much shorter and more comprehensive creed, and that it would 
be couched, as far as practicable, in Scripture terms. But the 
use of Scriptural phraseology seems to have been studiously 
avoided; and in all its twelve Articles we find no recognition 
whatever of death as the penalty of sin; nor in professedly 
giving the true import of the sacrament of Baptism, is its real 
significance as symbolizing the death and resurrection of the 
believer to a new life through redemption by Christ even al- 
luded to; nor in its definition of the Sacrament of the Lord's 
Supper is there any intimation that it points to Christ as the 
Source and Sustainer of that Life, and yet these are prime, 
fundamental principles of the Gospel as we understand it. But 
the criticism which our topic more especially suggests, relates 
to the last clause of the twelfth Article, which reads as follows : 
'* We believe ... in a final judgment, the issues of which are 
everlasting punishment and everlasting life." This clause is 
apparently quoted from Matt. 25: 46, though the precise lan- 
guage of neither the common nor the revised version is fol- 
9 



194 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



lowed ; for there is no other clause like it in all the Scriptures. 
If these words of our Lord had been intended to describe 
the issues of the last judgment of individuals after the resur- 
rection, we may well understand this " everlasting punishment " 
of sinners to be the " punishment of everlasting destruction," 
of which Paul speaks (2 Thess. 1: 9). But it is most evidently 
the punishment of the nations at His Second Coming, of which 
Christ is here speaking. But we object to the appropriation of 
this apparent phraseology of the Scriptures in the creed, to 
express the final doom of individual sinners consequent on the 
resurrection, not merely because the text had no such original 
application, nor because this antithesis of everlasting punish- 
ment and everlasting life is nowhere else found in the Word of 
God, but especially because it overlooks and ignores the real 
contrast which is constantly and everywhere else niade in the 
Scriptures between the saved and the lost. It is one of Death 
and Eternal Life uniformly throughout the Word of God. 
No careful reader of this Word can have failed to notice this ; 
and no one, even if he were determined to put upon these 
crucial words the ethical sense of misery and happiness which 
our traditional philosophy requires, need make any objection 
to the use of this Scriptural antithesis. If then, the creed had 
read — " The issues of which are (thanatos kai aionios zoe) (there 
is no such phraseology as everlasting death, but simply) Death 
and Everlasting Life," it would have conformed exactly to the 
teaching of Scripture on this point, and no one, however he 
might be disposed to interpret these words, could have made 
any reasonable objection. 

But these cautious creed-framers, in their compromising 
spirit, have so far yielded to the medieval dogma of endless 
torment which is still found in our obsolescent symbols, as to 
refrain from the use of this eminently Scriptural antithesis, 
not only in describing the issues of the final judgment, but 
they have refrained from the employment of this word Death 
in any part of their creed, as expressing the Divine penalty of 
sin ; and from intimating that the believer is indebted to re- 
demption in Christ for his hope of Eternal Life ! 



CHAPTER XL 



The Life Given — The Unspeakable .Gift. 

In the foregoing chapter we have been considering the 
destructive effect of sin, and the necessary mortality of 
sinful man ; not because this is our main theme, but as a 
kind of background to our main theme, which is that of 
Life Eternal through Christ, It was the more impor- 
tant to take this view, inasmuch as the traditional error 
of immortality for all men without any Saviour has 
painted this background in such false and lurid colors, as 
greatly to damage and obscure the Gospel picture that 
rests on it, and almost obliterate the real distinction be- 
tween the lot of the saved and the unsaved, which is pre- 
eminently one of Life, — Life without end, a life of purity 
and blessedness through Christ and with Christ in His 
everlasting kingdom. 

It is only as we come to recognize the true condition 
of sinful man, and his consequent destiny, as one, not 
simply of suffering, but of death and destruction, that 
the Gospel of our salvation stands out in its real bright- 
ness and glory. Hence the Word of God, in the very 
beginning spreads before us an account of the fall of our 
first parents from their original holiness, and the sad and 
sorrowful and mortal doom which they brought upon 
themselves and their posterity, as a kind of background 
upon which the glorious Gospel of our salvation is to be 
painted. First we have the Law with its fearful penalty 
of Death, and then the Gospel with its offer of Life. 

195 



196 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part n. 



Even in the sentence of condemnation there were inti- 
mations of mercy* Behind the dark cloud there were 
streaks of light. Voices of hope and cheer were heard 
mingling with the thunders of Sinai. The darkness of 
the long night that preceded the dawning of the day, was 
relieved by the shining of the stars in the firmament. 
Long before the rising of the Sun, there were many who 
waited and watched for His appearing. 

The New Testament is not simply a fuller and clearer 
revelation ' of Divine truth than the Old. It is all this ; 
but more. It is a new revelation. As in nature we find 
one stage following another in the work of creation, each 
higher than the one to which it succeeds ; so is it in the 
revelation of Divine truth. As in nature each grade, 
while it includes all that is in the grades below, and ex- 
hibits it in greater perfection, contains something more 
that especially distinguishes it from those grades ; so the 
New Testament, while it embraces all the truths of the 
Old, and reveals them more clearly, contains other and 
higher truths that distinguish it, as a New Revelation. 
And still further ; as every inferior grade overlaps that 
which is to follow, and foreshadows its peculiar charac- 
teristics, and perhaps, contains them all in a rudimental 
state ; so the Old Testament contains, in an undeveloped 
form ; in its types and symbols, in its prophecies and 
promises, hints, more or less clear, of the truths yet to 
be revealed in the New. But these two Revelations are 
separated from each other by a line as broad and distinct 
as that which separates any two grades in nature. If it 
be asked, what is that " something more," that higher 
truth which is peculiar to the New Testament, and which 
gives it pre-eminence over the Old? we reply without 
hesitation : It is the Revelation of Life and Immortality 
for mortal man by a new birth and a resurrection from 



Chap. XL] 



THE LIFE GIVEN. 



197 



the dead ; and the Destruction of all evil through the 
Almighty power of the Son of God our Saviour. 

But this is not only a new and higher revelation, but the 
Life itself is a new and higher Life, and he, to whom it 
is given, is a new creature ; " If any man be in Christ he 
is a new creature " ; not new, in some unreal metaphori- 
cal sense, denoting a reformation of character, and the 
regulation of his conduct by better motives. It means 
ail this, but more. He actually begins to be a new crea- 
ture.* There is the ingeneration of a new life within 
him by the Spirit of Gad. It is as superior to the old 
Adamic life, as it is more enduring. The one is natural, 
that is — psuchical and hastens to death; the other is Di- 
vine and immortal. " That is not first which is spiritual, 
but that which is natural, and afterward that which is 
spiritual." This new life, begotten not of flesh and 
blood, nor of the will of man but of God, may be faint 
and feeble at first, like the life of an unborn infant, but 
when this body of corruption shall be cast off, it will, 
in due time, take to itself a new spiritual body, like unto 
Christ's own glorious body, and the subject of it will rise 
to meet Him, at His coming and to take his place in His 
everlasting kingdom, f 

* " If man were by natural constitution possessed of immor- 
tality or eternal life, then would we expect to find the Scrip- 
tures insisting only on a modification of that life — a change of 
its dispositions and new direction of its powers as necessary 
to his seeing this kingdom of God — Whereas, if it be true that 
immortal life is altogether distinct from natural life— a new 
life, and from another source, then on the other hand, we would 
expect to hear of a new generation, and to find it written, i Ex- 
cept a man be borx again, he cannot see the kingdom of 
God.' This is what we find always insisted on in this Gospel.' ' 
Christian Life. W. de Buegh. 

t See note at the end of this chapter. 



198 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part II. 



There are many hints, more or less clear, of this new 
Divine Life scattered all through the Old Testament. 
The hope of it sustained and encouraged the faith of the 
patriarchs. Moses and the prophets exhorted to obedi- 
ence and trust in God in view of it. David and the 
other psalmists made it the theme of their songs and 
prayers and praises. But only in the New Testament, is 
it distinctly revealed as the gift of God through Jesus 
Christ, by whose death and resurrection it is assured. 

It is not necessary for us, who live under the full blaze 
of the Gospel to go back and cull out of the records of 
the old dispensation these anticipatory evidences of God's 
gracious purpose to give to mortal man an immortal life 
by a new birth and a resureection from the dead. After 
the sun itself begins to shine, we may dispense with the 
use of candles. 

We come, at once, then, to the 

New Testament. 

The Gospel of J ohn opens with the declaration, " In 
Him was Life (zbe) and the Life (zbe) was the light of 
men." He came, not to bear witness of that light, as did 
John the Baptist, but as the Life-giver Himself. " The 
Way, the Truth and the Life," the very Source and Foun- 
tain of Eternal Life. The first Adam was, at best, but 
a living soul (psuchen zbsan) the last Adam was — infi- 
nitely more, — a " quickening spirit," (pneuma zbopoioun 
life-giving spirit). 

In our natural progenitor, was only the psuche life, 
which was transitory and mortal ; and we could receive 
by natural generation from him nothing higher than this. 
In our Spiritual progenitor, was the zbe Life, which is 
spiritual and undying, and this is the Life which He 
gives in ^generation. The distinction between these 
two lives, the natural Adamic life, which is animal and 



Chap. XL] 



THE LIFE GIVEN. 



199 



transitory, and the supernatural life, which is spiritual 
and eternal, is everywhere clearly and definitely drawn, 
and preserved throughout the Xew Testament Scriptures. 
These two words, psucM and zoe are used to designate 
them. It is a great pity that we have not two words 
in our English version, as in the Latin, anima and vita, 
to represent them. By translating them both by the one 
English word, ' ; Lite,*' this distinction has been greatly 
obscured, and the ordinary reader loses sight of it almost 
entirely, or at best, he comes to suppose that- it is a mere 
ethical or tropical one ; that the same word, life, is some- 
times employed to designate man's natural life — all the 
life he is supposed ever to have — and sometimes the 
purity and blessedness of that life ; whereas the real 
Gospel distinction is as actual and broad as it possibly 
can be. There are two separate progenitors : two sepa- 
rate births ; and two separate destinies. TTe would be 
glad so to emphasize this cardinal idea, whig}* the tradi- 
tional philosophy has practically ignored, as to give to our 
citations the force and influence they ought to have over 
the mind of the reader. 

This is the grand truth our Lord would have taught 
to Xicodemus in the very beginning of His ministry : 

John 3. " Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man be 
born (or rather be begotten gennao) again he cannot see the king- 
dom of God. That which is born {begotten) of the flesh Is flesh ; 
and that which is born {begotten) of the Spirit is spirit. As Mo- 
ses lifted up the Serpent in the wilderness, even so must the 
Son of Man be lifted up. that whosoever believe th in Him. 
should not perish but have Eternal Life. For God so loved the 
world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever be- 
lieveth in Him should not perish, but have Everlasting Life. 
For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, 
bur that the world through Him might be saved [This word 
sozo. soter, soteria, usually translated save. Saviour, salvation 
in our version, is rendered (as we are told) in the Peshito or 



200 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part n. 



Syriac version (which is undoubtedly the oldest version, if not 
actually, as some think, the original text of this Gospel) — to 
give life, Life-giver, Life. We have not this version at 
hand, to refer to, but it will be seen how this rendering throws 
great light on the meaning of these Scriptural terms, to save, 
salvation, Saviour. The idea is not a rescue from sin and mis- 
ery merely, but from Death, the conferring of Life, Eternal 
Life, upon mortal men.] 

Nicodemus had, like the Pharisees generally, vague no- 
tions of a life beyond the present, but it was only the 
j3rolongation of man's natural life into another state, not 
a new life but the same old life of the soul, after it had 
escaped from the body; such a ghostly kind of life as 
the philosophy he had imbibed from the pagan world had 
taught him to believe in, and such as this same philosophy 
now teaches. But he had no conception of that new 
spiritual life, which comes only by a new spiritual birth, 
and which is the only foundation for any good hope of 
Immortality, He was destitute of that spiritual princi- 
ple by which he could conceive of it. And so are natural 
men generally, and even many religious teachers at the 
present day. " The natural man receiveth not the things 
of the Spirit of God because they are spiritually dis- 
cerned ; for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he 
know them." 

This is the doctrine our Lord attempted to teach to the 
woman of Samaria, at the well. But her carnal mind, 
unillumined by the Spirit of God, could not rise to the 
apprehension of these spiritual and eternal verities. She 
understood the figures by which Christ would represent it 
only in their lower sense, or at best, only in some such 
mythical, ethical, unreal sense, as all carnal minds now 
put upon them. But Scriptural figures are employed to 
represent realities and not other figurative ideas ; this 
spiritual life, of which Christ spoke is not an unreal life 



Chap. XL] 



THE LIFE GIVEN. 



201 



but an actual life and even more real if possible, and 
more substantial than the natural life of man. 

John 4. " If thou knewest the gift of God [Eternal Life 
through Christ] and who it is that saith unto thee ' Give me to 
drink/ thou wouldst have asked Him, and He would have given 
thee living water. Whosoever drinketh of this water shall 
thirst again; but whosoever drinketh of the water that I 
shall give him, shall never thirst; but the water that I shall 
give him, shall be in him a well of water springing up into 
Everlasting Life." 

It was of this Life that Christ spoke in His discourse 
with the Hebrews, after healing the man at the pool of 
Bethesda. But their minds were too dark and groveling 
to apprehend His meaning. 

John 5. " For as the Father raiseth up the dead and quiek- 
eneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He will. Verily, 
verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my words and believeth 
on Him that sent Me, hath Everlasting Life and shall not come 
into condemnation, but is passed from Death unto Life. For as 
the Father hath Life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to 
have Life in Himself. 

" Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming in the which all 
that are in the graves shall hear His voice and shall come * 
forth: — they that have done good unto the resurrection of Life 
and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damna- 
tion (condemnation to death). 

" Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have Eternal 
Life [or rather the assurance of it, but you will find no assur- 
ance of this, excepting through Me, as your Life-giver]. For 
they are they which testify of me ; and ye will not come unto 
Me that ye might have Life." 

We desire to call especial attention to the passage just 
quoted, as absolutely conclusive of the doctrine for 
which we are contending, — of Eternal Life only 
through Christ. The doctrine of a future life was 
not unknown to the ancient Hebrews. It was so far re- 
vealed in their Scriptures, that they had come very 
9* 



202 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



generally to accept it. But under the influence of the 
Grecian Philosophy, by which this religion had become 
corrupted, they had come to hold it as a philosophical 
doctrine of the immortality of the psuche or natural life 
of man, or — if in any special sense, — as their peculiar in- 
heritance as the children of Abraham, and not as the 
special gift of God's grace through a Saviour, and only 
to be received by a new birth. Hence, when Christ 
showed them how false were their hopes of immortality, 
excepting through Himself ; and that there was nothing 
in their Scriptures — the Divine authority of which they 
conceded — to justify their hopes, they were offended, as 
men are now offended by the same doctrine ; but if they 
will " Search the Scriptures," they will find no doctrine 
of immortality for man, but through Christ, either in the 
Old or New Testament. 

The same truth He preached after the miracle of the 
" loaves and the fishes " : 

John 6. k< Labor not for the meat that perisheth, but for the 
meat which endureth unto Everlasting Life, which the Son of 
man shall give you. I am the Bread of Life: he that cometh to 
Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never 
thirst. 

"This is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one that 
seeth the Son and believeth on Him may have Everlasting Life, 
and I will raise him up at the last 'day. Verily, verily I say 
unto you, he that believeth on Me hath Everlasting Life. 

" I am the Bread of Life. Your fathers did eat manna in the 
wilderness and are dead. This is the Bread that cometh down 
from heaven, that a mau may eat thereof and not die. 

" I am the Living Bread which came down from heaven: If 
a man eat of this Bread be shall live forever. And the Bread 
which I shall give is my flesh, which I give for the life of the 
world. 

" Verily, verily I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the 
Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no Life (zden) in you. 
Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath Eternal 
Life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 



Chap, XI.] 



THE LIFE GIVEX. 



203 



" As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father, 
so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me. This is the 
Bread which came down from heaven; not as yonr fathers did 
eat manna and are dead. He that eateth of this Bread Shall, 
Live Forever. It is the Spirit that quickeneth (giveth this 
new life), the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak 
unto you, they are Spirit and they are Life." 

Our Lord is not here speaking of happiness and misery 
hereafter, nor of holiness and sin, but of Life and. Death. 
As the life of the body, the psuche life, is sustained by 
material food, so this higher zoe life, this spiritual life, 
which He gives, must have its spiritual food from the 
same source. This former life cannot always be sus- 
tained even by food supernaturally given from heaven. 
Their fathers who ate of the manna in the wilderness 
are dead. They too, must die, if they have no higher 
principle of life ingenerated within them. This new 
life is received only from Him and can be maintained 
only by the closest union with Him. To such a life 
there is no end. The whole chapter is remarkable for 
the constant reiteration of this one great truth. But 
alas, they could not or would not, receive it. The idea 
of the natural immortality of the psuche had taken such 
firm hold of their minds, as to close them utterly to this 
great Gospel truth of Life and Immortality by a new 
birth through a Divine Saviour. 

Not merely the Scribes and Pharisees, but many of 
His followers " were offended at His doctrine." " From 
that time many of His disciples loent back and walked 
no more with Sim. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, 
Will ye also go away? Then Simon answered Him, 
Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words of 
Eternal Lifer 

How many there are of Christ's, so-called, disciples 
even now, who cannot, or will not, accept of this teach- 



204 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part II. 



ing. It is too humiliating to their natural pride : it is 
too directly opposed to their psychological notions of the 
nature of man; it is too much at variance with the pop- 
ular traditions of the church to be accepted by them. 
They are quite willing to receive Christ as a Great 
Teacher sent from God ; as a Saviour from eternal sin 
and suffering ; as a Giver of purity and joy and blessed- 
ness forever, to " immortal man " ; but not as a Saviour 
from actual and eternal death ; not as a Giver of Eternal 
Life, How shall they be 'made to understand, or rather 
to receive this great and glorious truth excepting by the 
Spirit of God ? * May it please God to so bless our 
humble efforts to this end, that they may say with Peter, 
"Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of 
Eternal Lifer 

JohnS: " Then said Jesus unto them again, I go my way 
and ye shall seek Me and shall die in your sins. Whither I go 
ye cannot come. Ye are from beneath; I am from above. Ye 
are of this world; I am not of this world. I said therefore 
unto you, ye shall die in your sins ; for if ye believe not that I 
am He, ye shall die in your sins. 

"Verily, verily I say unto you, if a man keep my sayings he 
shall never see death" [or rather not see death forever, eis ton 
aidna, that is the death from which there is no resurrection, the 
second death, eternal death]. 

Again He teaches the same truth under the allegory 
of the Door and the Good Shepherd : 

John 10: "lam the Door; by Me, if any man enter in he 
shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture. The 
thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. I 
am come that they might have Life and that they might have it 
abundantly. [The word is not more abundantly perisooteros, as 
in our common version, but perissos, super-abundant>y.] 

*An unknown correspondent, who has recently come to the 
knowledge of this glorious truth, writes: "I verily believe 
it to be a revelation from the Lord, and that no man can or will 
receive it, unless it be given him from above." 



•Chap. XI.] 



THE LIFE GIVEN. 



205 



; ' I am the good shepherd and know my sheep, and am known 
of mine. As the Father knoweth Me. even so know I the 
Father and lay down my life \psuche, natural life, not zde, life] 
for the sheep. And other sheep have I which are not of this 
fold. Them also must I bring, and they shall hear my voice, 
and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. My sheep hear 
my voice and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give 
unto them Eternal Life, and they shall never perish, neither 
shall any pluck them out of my hand.' ; 

This was the burden of His instructions to Mary and 
Martha at the grave of Lazarus. They were not entirely 
ignorant of the great Gospel doctrines of the Resurrec- 
tion, the General Judgment, and the Life to come ; for 
they had been under the special teaching of the Master. 
But their notions were very confused and imperfect. So 
when Jesus said to Martha, " Thy brother shall rise 
again." Martha said unto him: "I know that he shall 
rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus 
said unto her, U I am the Resurrection and the Life. 
He that believeth on Me though he were dead., yet shall 
he live, and whosoever liveth [or is alive at my second 
coming] shall never die." 

Those who have died a natural death believing on 
Him, shall be raised, and those believers who shall be 
alive at His coming again shall be changed without 
dying, and they all together shall enter upon that life 
which shall never end : over such the second death hath 
no > power. 

The same doctrine is expressed in His intercessory 
prayer : 

John 17: u These words spake Jesus, and lifted up His eyes 
to heaven and said: Father My hour is come; glorify thy Son, 
that thy Son may glorify Thee. As Thou hast given Him power 
over all flesh, that He should give Eternal Life to as many as 
Thou hast given Him. And this is Eternal Life, that they 
may know Thee, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.'-' 



206 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



The above citations are all from the Gospel of John. 
We might cite other similar passages from this Gospel. 
We might quote also not a few, of like import, from the 
other three Evangelists, but the Gospel of John is more 
full on this subject. It is the main theme of his Gospel, 
as it is also of his Epistles. In the first six chapters of 
this Gospel, he declares over and over again, no less than 
twenty -eight times, and more than fifty times in all his 
writings, that Christ is the only Source of Eternal Life. 
If these citations already given do not suffice to establish 
this doctrine, no array of texts would suffice. Is it possi- 
ble that this Eternal Life — of which our Lord speaks so 
earnestly and with such constant reiteration, as the boon 
He came to bring to dying men, to provide which He 
gave up His own life, and which He freely offers to all 
who will believe on Him — is not truly Eternal Life after 
all ; but only a certain improved condition of life, pure 
and blissful indeed, but only an attribute of the Eternal 
Life which is the portion of all men ? Can it be, that 
He meant by these high-sounding w x ords nothing more 
than that He would engraft upon the naturally immortal 
life of His people, certain qualities of purity and blessed- 
ness that should endure forever, while those who refused 
to believe on Him, would have to spend their immortal 
lives in sin and misery ? Is the distinction which He 
draws between believers and unbelievers a mere ethical 
and figurative one ? Can it be possible that any true be- 
liever in Christ, or any one who accepts His words as 
true, should claim as his own inalienable prerogative this 
immortality, which He " who only hath immortality," 
purchased for them by His own precious blood ? This 
doctrine of Life and Immortality through Christ, the 
Life-giver, which illuminates every page of the Gospel, is 
indeed humiliating to the pride of man ; but it is full of 



Chap. XL] THE LIFE GIVEN. 207 

honor and glory to Christ, and full of comfort and joy to 
those who receive it, and full of hope to dying men. 

O, my brothers in Christ ! why will ^bu agree with the 
enemies of your Lord to rob Him of His peculiar glory 
as the Giver of Eternal Life to His people ? You 
indeed love and cherish Him, as you well may, as your 
Saviour from sin and misery. But He is infinitely more, 
He saves you from Death — not a metaphorical death — 
but an actual death, from which there would be no awak- 
ing without Him. It is because He has risen, that you will 
rise. It is because He lives, that you will live. And the 
Life that He gives you is a Life of blessedness and joy 
forever in His everlasting kingdom. " Give unto the 
Lord, O ye His people ! give unto the Lord the glory 
due unto His name." 

And you whom He has sent to preach this Gospel, 
preach it in no meager, stinted way, as though you were 
afraid of giving Him too large a share of honor in the 
work of your redemption, but preach it in all its fulness, 
as the Gospel of Salvation not merely from sin and mis- 
ery, but from death itself. Why should you not begin 
even now the song which will be sung by all who reach 
their heavenly home, " Worthy is the Lamb that was 
slain, to receive power and riches, and wisdom and 
strength and honor and glory and blessing forever and 
ever ! " 

It was not until after the Holy Spirit was poured out 
with power upon the Apostles and early disciples of 
our Lord, that their minds were fully open to receive 
this truth. But when they did receive it, and " knew 
the power of His Resurrection," they were lifted com- 
pletely out of their former condition, and filled with a 
zeal and energy which nothing could withstand. This 
was " the unspeakable Gift," which they burned to make 



208 THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part IL 

known to their- fellow-men. This is what the angel told 
Peter and the other Apostles to preach, when he had 
released thern from the prison at Jerusalem : " Go stand 
and speak in the temple to the people all the words of 
this (zoe) Life." And they gladly obeyed. This is what 
Paul and Barnabas preached at Antioch, first to the Jews, 
and when they refused to accept of Jesus as the Giver of 
this Life, they turned to the Gentiles, saying : 

Acts 13: 46. " It was necessary that the Word of God should 
first have been spoken to you : but seeing ye put it from you, 
and judge yourselves unworthy (by your unbelief), of Everlast- 
ing Life, lo! we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Son com- 
manded us, saying: I have set thee to be a light of the Gen- 
tiles, that thou shoulclest be for salvation unto the ends of the 
earth. And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and 
glorified the Word of the Lord, and as many as were ordained to 
Eternal Life, believed." 

Paul preached the same doctrine to the Athenians ; 
but with their minds full of the fanciful notions of their 
poets and philosophers, concerning the spirit world and 
the immortality of all souls, they scouted the idea of 
Eternal Life only by a resurrection from the dead through 
Jesus Christ. Had he preached to them the doctrine of 
a spirit life, of future rewards and penalties, an immortal 
life, either of blessedness or misery, for all men, they 
would not have called him " a setter forth of strange 
gods " ; for this is just what their own religion taught 
them. But the doctrine of " Jesus and the Resurrection," 
and of immortality through Him only, was no more 
agreeable to them, than it is to the Platonists at the pres- 
ent day. 

This is the leading truth that runs through all his Epis- 
tles, and the string upon which all the other doctrines of 
the Gospel are suspended. To the Romans, he preached 
that all, whether Jews or Gentiles, were under one com- 



Chap. XI.] 



THE LIFE GIVEN. 



209 



mon sentence of death ; for all had sinned and come 
short of the glory of God. Those who had sinned with- 
out law, must perish without law, and those who had 
sinned under the Law, must be judged by the law ; that 
death reigned over all the children of Adam. But, by 
the grace of God, there was hope. The Gospel, which he 
was sent to preach, was the power of God unto salvation 
unto every one that believeth in Christ. u To those, who 
by patient continuance in well doing, seek for honor and 
Immortality (God would give) Eternal Life.' 3 "That as 
sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign 
through righteousness unto Eternal Life, by Jesus Christ 
our Lord." To believers he says, "What fruit had ye 
then, in those things whereof ye are now ashamed ? for 
the end of those things is death ; but now being made 
free from sin, and become the servants of God, ye have 
your fruit unto holiness, and the end, Everlasting Life, 
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is 
Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord." God is a 
Sovereign in the bestowment both of natural and spirit- 
ual gifts. There is no such thing as spontaneous genera- 
tion or regeneration. The children of God are begotten 
by God Himself, as truly as the children of Adam are 
begotten by their natural progenitor. This new life, 
which they receive from Him, concerns itself, not with 
carnal and perishable things, but with spiritual and eter- 
nal things. They who possess it are " led by the Spirit 
of God." They will not come into condemnation to the 
second death. Nothing will be able " to separate them 
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus," by whom, 
and to whom they are henceforth to live as His chosen 
ones, and heirs of Eternal Life. 

This same truth is equally prominent in both of his 
Epistles to the Corinthians. In the First he shows how 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



impossible it is for human reason to attain to any true 
knowledge of the Gospel ; how foolish the truth it re- 
veals — of Eternal Life through a crucified Saviour — 
seems to natural men, " For the natural man receiveth 
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolish- 
ness unto him, neither can he know them, because they 
are spiritually discerned." He was " determined to know 
nothing among them, but Christ and Him crucified." 
" Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, nor have entered into 
the heart of man the things that God hath prepared for 
them that love Him." " The fashion of this world pass- 
eth away " ; the prizes that natural men seek are corrupt- 
ible, but theirs is incorruptible. And finally, coming to 
the great and glorious doctrine of the Resurrection, he 
dwells on it more at length, and shows how it is assured 
to us by the death and resurrection of Christ. If this 
assurance were taken away, we would be the most miser- 
able of all men, for we would have no hope of any life 
beyond the grave ; all who had fallen asleep in Him had 
perished — not gone to a state of endless sin and misery — 
but perished, become extinct. He attempts to illustrate 
the nature of the spiritual bodies we shall take on at the 
resurrection, and show how glorious, and how incorrupti- 
ble they will be ; how entirely different from our gross 
fleshly bodies, which are fitted only for psacMcal natures, 
and could not possibly inherit the kingdom of God, and 
how, simultaneously with the resurrection of the dead, 
the bodies of those who are alive at Christ's coming, will 
be changed ; " In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, 
for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised 
incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this cor- 
ruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal mast 
pat on immortality, and death be swallowed up in vic- 
tory. O Death, where is thy sting? O Hades (or 



Chap. XI.] 



THE LIFE GIVEN. 



211 



thanate O Death), where is thy victory?" Mark the 
strength of the expression this corruptible must put on 
incorruption^ and this mortal must put on immortality — 
surely if incorrupt ion — if immortality is then put on, it 
could not have been possessed before. 

The Second Epistle is equally full of Christ and Him 
crucified, as the Source of Eternal Life to all His people. 
The apostle is determined to know nothing else among 
them, waiting anxiously for the time when his mortality 
" shall be swallowed up of life." 

So is it with all his other Epistles — our quotations from 
w T hich must be cut short. This is their central theme : 
" Christ our Life." « In hope of Eternal Life:' " Your 
Life is hid with Christ in God." " When Christ who is 
our Life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with 
Him in glory.' 5 

Peter, James and Jude follow in the same track. 
" Holding forth the word of Life," — Exhorting all to 
" Fight the good fight of faith, and to lay hold of Eter- 
nal Life." To look for " the Crown of Life which the 
Lord hath promised to ail that love Him." 

The Epistles of John, like his gospel, are full of the 
same theme. He begins and closes his first epistle with 
this central thought of Eternal Life in Christ. 

1. John 1: 1. " That which was from the beginning, which 
we have heard and which we have seen with our eyes, and 
which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of 
the Word of Life. For the Life, was manifested, and we have 
seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that Eternal Life 
which was with the Father and was manifested unto us." — 2: 
25. " This is the promise that He hath promised us, even Eter- 
nal Life." 3: 14. " We know that we have passed from death 
unto Life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not 
his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is 
a murderer ; and ye know that no murderer hath Eternal Life 
abiding in him." 5:9-12. 4 'If we receive the witness of men, 



212 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God 
which He hath testified of His Son. He that believeth on the 
Son hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath 
made Him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God 
gave of His Son, and this is the record — That God hath given to 
us Eternal Life ; and this life is in His Son. He that hath the 
Son hath the Life and he that hath not the Son hath not the The 
Life." 

How is it possible for any stronger, or more explicit af- 
firmation of the doctrine for which we are contending, to 
be framed, than this ? How is it possible to bring any- 
better testimony or record or authority than is here given ? 
The only way in which its force can be turned is to deny 
that (zde), Life here means life. And this is just what 
our opponents are bold enough to do. They say it has 
an ethical, spiritualistic, metaphorical meaning. It means 
" purity," " happiness," " well-being," " true functional 
action," etc.— anything but just what it says Eternal Life. 
If they shall be permitted to change the meaning of such 
positive testimony as this, to suit their own convenience — 
then their controversy is with God and not with us. But 
in taking leave of them, we must remind them of the re- 
markable words with which this testimony is introduced 
" He that believeth not God hath made Him a Liar, be- 
cause he believeth not the record that God gave of His 
Son." 

Finally, in the Apocalypse the revelator gives us a 
panoramic view of the struggle between the Life-giver 
and him that " hath the power of death " on this earth, 
to the end of the age. We are permitted to see Christ 
as " the Lamb of God that was slain " victorious over all. 
His foes and Satan the murderer (the man-killer anthro- 
poJctoiios) from the beginning, and ail his hosts, bound, 
judged and u punished with everlasting destruction." 
And the redeemed from among the children of Adam, a 



Chap. XL] 



THE LIFE GIVEN. 



213 



mighty company whom no man can number, " whose 
names were written in the LamVs Booh of Life from 
the foundation of the world," clothed in white robes, are 
seen walking the golden streets of the Celestial Paradise, 
with crowns on their heads, and harps in their hands, 
singing praises to Him who bought them with His own 
precious blood. And they shall again " have a right to 
the Tree of Life" and " the Lamb which is in the midst 
of the throne shall feed them, and lead them unto living 
fountains of water, and God shall wipe away all tears 
from their eyes." 



Note.— Prof. Drummond in his recent able work entitled 
Natural Law in the Spiritual World teaches the same truth for 
which we are contending. Though he does not formally deny 
natural immortality nor teach in so many words the necessity 
of union with Christ in order to Eternal Life, yet if science 
be worth anything on this point, his book is a scientific demon- 
stration of the truth that life only in Christ is God's great law 
for the future of men. We quote the following passage : 

" What now, let us ask, specifically distinguishes a Christian 
man from a non-Christian man? Is it that he has certain 
mental characteristics not possessed by the other ? Is it that 
certain faculties have been trained in him, that morality as- 
sumes special and higher manifestations, and character a nobler 
form ? Is the Christian merely an ordinary man, who happens 
from birth to have been surrounded with a peculiar set of ideas? 
Is his religion of that peculiar quality of the moral life, defined 
by Mr. Arnold as " morality touched by condition"? And 
does the possession of a high ideal, benevolent sympathies, a 
reverent spirit, and a favorable environment account for what 
men call his spiritual life ? 

" The distinction between them is the same as that between 
the organic and the inorganic, the living and the dead. What is 
the difference between a crystal and an organism, a stone and a 
plant ? They have much in common. Both are made of the 
same atoms. Both display the same properties of matter. Both 
are subject to the physical laws. Both may be very beautiful. 
But beside possessing all the crystal has, the plant possesses 
something more — a mysterious something called Life. This 



214 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



Life is not something which existed in the crystal in a less de- 
veloped form. There is nothing at all like it in the crystal. 
There is nothing like the first beginning of it in the crystal, not 
a trace or a symptom of it. This plant is tenanted by some- 
thing new, an original and unique possession, added over 
and above all the properties common to both. When from veg- 
etable life we rise to animal life, here again we find something 
original and unique — unique at least as compared with the min- 
eral. From animal life we ascend again to Spiritual life. And 
here also is something new, something still more unique. He 
who lives the spiritual life, has a distinct kind of life added to 
all the other phases of life which he manifests — a kind of life 
infinitely more distinct than is the active life of a plant from 
the inertia of a stone. The spiritual man is more distinct in 
point of fact, than is the plant from the stone. This is the one 
possible comparison in Nature for the widest distinction in Na- 
ture ; but compared with the difference between the natural and 
the spiritual, the gulf which divides the organic from the inor- 
ganic is a hair's breadth. The natural man belongs essentially 
to this present order of things. He is endowed simply with a 
high quality of the natural animal Life. But it is life of so 
poor a quality that it is not Life at all. He that hath not the 
Son hath not Life; but he that hath the Son hath Life— a new, 
distinct and supernatural endowment. He is not of this world. 
He is of the timeless state of eternity. It doth not yet appear 
what he shall he" 



CHAPTER XII. 



Life versus Death. 

In the two foregoing chapters, the reader's attention 
has been directed to two classes of texts : Firsts those 
that teach that the portion of the sinner or natural man 
is death and destruction. Second, those that teach that 
the portion of the renewed or spiritual man is Life Ever- 
lasting. Under the designation of sinners is included the 
whole human race. As children of Adam we are all 
mortal, — not mortal in any partial sense as to our bodies 
merely, but mortal in every sense of the word— having 
no eternal life of any sort abiding in us by nature. Im- 
mortality is declared to be the special and peculiar gift of 
God through Jesus Christ, and only received in a new 
spiritual birth. 

The two opposite doctrines of these two classes of 
men — and there are only two classes recognized in the 
Scriptures — are set forth both positively and negatively, 
categorically and figuratively, with such reiteration, and 
in such variety of language in every part of God's Word, 
that these two prime truths might well be considered as 
established — if anything can be established by texts of 
Scripture — beyond all question, viz. : 

1. That apart from Christ, the natural man has no 
possible ground of hope for immortality or eternal life. 

2. Tha t this immortality is just what every regener- 
ated soid has assured to him through the death and res- 
urrection of Christ. 

215 



216 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



But, as if to put these truths beyond all controversy 
and to make them stand out as clearly as possible, there 
is a large number of other j^ssages which we have not 
yet cited, in which these two classes are brought into jux- 
taposition ; and a comparison by contrast is instituted be- 
tween them under a great variety of titles ; such as " sin- 
ners and saints " ; " the wicked and the righteous ; " " un- 
believers and believers ; " " rej^robates and heirs ; " " ene- 
mies of God and friends of God ; " u the foolish and the 
wise;" " the tares and the wheat;" "the dross and the 
gold ; " " the children of the world and the children of the 
kingdom ; " " the children of God and the children of the 
wicked one ; " " those who live after the flesh and those 
who are led by the Spirit ; " and by a great variety of 
other titles, under which their opposite characters and 
destinies are set, the one over against the other. * 

The children of Adam by natural birth are shown to 
be like their progenitor, sinful, selfish, carnal, earthly, 
mortal, finite in their aims, and beset by a thousand ills 
as they run their transitory career, until they go down to 
sheol (or hades) and return to the dust from which they 
were taken. — While on the other hand, the children of 
God, by a new birth, are, like their Spiritual Progenitor, 
pure in heart, heavenly minded, seeking those things that 
are spiritual and eternal ; and though, while yet imperfect 
these two natures, the old and the new, mingle for a time, 
and struggle for the mastery in the same body, like the 
infants Esau and Jacob, the last born shall finally sup- 
plant the first, and come off completely victorious. And 
though the old nature shall go clown to death and decay, 
the new man, created after^ the image of God in true ho- 
liness, shall take to himself a spiritual body, adapted to 
his spiritual nature, like to that of his risen Lord, and 

*See note at the end of this chapter. 



Chap. XII.] 



LIFE VERSUS DEATH. 



217 



rise, like Him, immortal, both in body and in spirit, to its 
inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not 
away, reserved for him in heaven. 

It remains for us now to give attention to some of 
these antithetical passages. 

It is not in the Gospel that this contrast is first insti- 
tuted. From the time when God first began to choose 
to Himself a peculiar people, and the line began to be 
drawn between the sons of God and the children of 
men, a separate destiny w r as suggested to their hopes, 
and their faith laid hold of it, though it was but dimly 
apprehended — for it was not until the coming of Christ 
that Life and Immortality were fully brought to light, 
as the peculiar portion of believers. Though a very 
prominent place is given to earthly blessings, in the 
good that is promised to the faithful, yet they finished 
their earthly course, and slept with their fathers, under 
a conviction, more or less distinct, that they had not ex- 
hausted the promises. They felt that something more 
was meant by the oft-repeated assurance that they should 
"inherit the earth" and " prolong their days." Their 
faith lighted up the dark valley, and dissipated its chief 
terrors. The way to the grave became brighter and 
brighter, as the Gospel day began to dawn. While to 
the wicked, the shadowy terrors that came up from sheol 
to meet them, as they went down into its dark chambers, 
became more and more fearful. 

There is much that is mysterious to us now in the lan- 
guage of Christ Himself with respect to the future ; and 
much more in that of the prophets ; nor can we suppose 
that those to whom they were spoken fully comprehended 
them ; and yet they felt them to be pregnant with mean- 
ing. In the giving of the Law from Sinai, when God 
proclaimed Himself as visiting the iniquity of the fathers 
10 



218 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



upon the children, to the third and fourth generation — 
and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love 
Him and keep His commandments; in the responsive 
utterances of blessing and cursing from Ebal and Geri- 
zim ; in the farewell words of Moses, " I call heaven and 
earth to record this day against you, that I have set 
before you Life and Death, blessing and cursing ; there- 
fore choose Life, that both thou and thy seed may live"; 
there is, to us who read these solemn words under the 
light of the Gospel, a significance that is not exhausted this 
side of the grave, and even those who heard them must 
have felt that they were fraught with a deeper meaning. 
The inspired prophetess sings 

" He will keep the feet of His saints, and the wicked shall be 
silent in darkness." (1 Sam. 2:9.) 

In many of the Psalms this contrast bet ween the two 
classes is emphatically made. In the First Psalm it is 
said : " The godly man is like a tree planted by the rivers 
of waters, his leaf shall not wither. — But the ungodly are 
not so, but are as the chaff which the wind drive th away." 
In the Second, we have a vivid picture of the King in Zion 
possessing the uttermost parts of the earth w r ith his loyal 
people — while His enemies " are dashed in pieces like a 
potter's vessel."* So is it with very many of the Psalms. 

But it must suffice to quote more at length from the 
Forty-ninth, in which the two classes are distinctly con- 
trasted, and the issue of their lives too plainly set forth 
to be' misunderstood. 

" They that trust in their wealth and boast themselves of the 
multitude of their riches — none of them can by any means re- 
deem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him (for the re- 

*We may ask, how the way of holiness could be called the 
way everlasting, in contrast to every wicked way (Ps. 139: 24.) 
If the two ways were both everlasting; the one being the way of 
everlasting holiness and happiness; the other the way of ever- 
lasting sin and misery ? S. Minton. 



Chap. XII.] LIFE VERSUS DEATH. 



219 



demption of tlie soul is precious and-it ceaseth forever) that he 
would still live, and not see corruption. For he seeth that wise 
men die ; likewise the fool and the brutish person, and leave 
their wealth to others. Like sheep they are laid in the grave : 
death shall feed on them — and the upright shall have dominion 
over them in the morning, and their beauty shall consume in 
the grave — their dwelling (final home). But God will redeem my 
soul from the power of the grave; for He shall receive me. He 
shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see 
light. Man that is in honor and understandeth not is like the 
beasts that perish." 

However vague some of these expressions may be — 
and their imperfect translation makes them still more ob- 
scure — the general idea, and the contrast are sufficiently 
plain. Nothing else can be meant than what is more 
fully set forth in the Gospel — the resurrection of the 
righteous to a Life that shall never end, and the death 
and final extinction of the wicked. 

These contrasts abound in the writings of Solomon. 
The book of Proverbs opens with an impressive picture 
of this sort ; and such antithetical passages as the follow- 
ing: scattered here and there from beginning to end : 

" The light of the righteous rejoiceth — but the lamp of the 
wicked shall be put out. Though a sinner do evil a hundred 
times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know it shall be 
well with them that fear God, which fear before Him. — But it 
shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his 
days, which are as a shadow, because he feareth not before 
God." "The fear of the Lord prolong eth days, — but the years 
of the wicked shall be shortened. The fear of the Lord pro- 
longeth days. — [This expression 'proiongeth days' means more 
than simply living to be old. It is of frequent occurrence — 
and -evidently carries the idea of ' length of days forever and 
ever,' which is elsewhere used] — but destruction shall be to 
the workers of iniquity. The hope of the righteous shall be 
gladness — but the expectation of the wicked shall perish. The 
righteous shall never be removed — but the wicked shall not 
inhabit the earth. As righteousness tendeth to Life, so he 



220 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT, 



[Part II. 



that pursueth evil, pursueth it to his own Death. Whoso 
findeth Me, findeth Life, and shall obtain favor of the Lord — 
but he that sinneth against Me wrongeth his own soul ; all they 
that hate Me love death" 

In the prophetical books this contrast is often set forth 
in beautiful and glowing language. In Isaiah the anxious 
inquirer is represented while in a scene of conflict, and of 
mingled light and darkness, as crying out from Seir, 
" Watchman what of the night?" and the cheering re- 
sponse comes from him who stands on the watch tower : 
" The morning cometh — and also the night ; the morning 
of victory and joy to the people of God, and the night of 
deeper darkness and death to His enemies. " Say ye to 
the righteous that it shall be well with him ; for they 
shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked ; 
it shall be ill with him ; for the reward of his hands shall 
be given him." In the closing verses of this prophecy 
upon which we will remark in another place — this con- 
trast is sharply drawn. So also in Daniel we are told 
that the righteous " shall shine as the stars forever and 
ever" — but the wicked " shall be unto shame and ever- 
lasting contempt." * 

In reply to the querulous complaints of the Israelites, 
that the ways of God were unjust and unequal, and that 
He showed no more favor to the righteous than to the 
wicked, the prophet Ezekiel was directed to say, that it 
is not so. God has no pleasure in the death of any one. 
It is His will that the wicked should turn from his evil 
way and Live. " Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die? " 
They could not have understood him as using these words 
in a mere earthly and temporal sense ; for it would have 
been nothing but mockery had he meant nothing more 

*For a more particular notice of this passage the reader is 
referred to the next chapter. 



Chap. XII.] LIFE VERSUS DEATH. 



221 



than the first death, and the life that now is. The second 
death which is more distinctly revealed, after the coming 
of Christ through whom Life and immortality are brought 
to light was evidently here implied. The full significance 
of these terms may not have been as obvious to them, 
nor even to the inspired prophet, as they are to us ; yet 
there is an implication of a life and death to come, of 
which they could not have been wholly ignorant. Mal- 
achi closes the Old Testament canon with a vivid pict- 
ure of the preservation of the righteous, as the jewels 
of God ; and the destruction of the wicked, whom the 
Lord shall burn up as stubble, leaving neither root nor 
branch, in the dreadful day of His coming. 
The New Testament. 

Now comes John the Baptist, like the day star before 
the rising sun, or a herald in advance of the King to pre- 
pare the way of the Lord, saying : " Repent ye, for the 
kingdom of heaven is at hand." A new spiritual kingdom 
is to be erected on the earth. " The axe is laid unto (at) 
the root of the trees ; every tree that bringeth not forth 
good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire " — for 
what purpose ? — to be burned up of course — " His fan is 
in His hand and He will thoroughly purge His floor, 
and gather His wheat into the garner " — and what will 
He do with the chaff ? Will He heap it up in another 
place and keep it also ? l\o — " But He will burn up the 
chaff with unquenchable fire." Strange indeed it is, that 
this expressive phrase which emphasizes the sure and 
certain consumption of the chaff that is thrown into it, 
should be so perverted and reversed as to be made to 
promise the eternal preservation in torment of the hu- 
man chaff that is in like manner cast into it ! ! 

At last in the fulness of time the King Himself comes 
down, bringing with Him to earth, the Kingdom of 



222 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part II. 



Heaven. He comes to make a beginning of setting it 
up in this lower world, and to call men into it. But all 
men are by nature earthly, carnal, and under the domin- 
ion of temporal things. This is purely spiritual. Such 
as men are they have no fitness for it. They must be 
born again. They must become new creatures. Their 
natural birth gives them only a low and transitory life. — 
a soulical (psuche) or natural life. They must have a 
new spiritual life (pneumatikos life) in order that they 
may be fitted for His kingdom and for the Life Everlast- 
ing (zde aidnios). This is the life He will give to His 
people, His own peculiar life that shall never pass away. 
Because He lives they shall live also. The gate that 
leads to destruction (apoleian) — not simply to misery, 
but to utter ruin — is broad, and therefore many go in 
thereat. And because the gate that leads to life — not 
simply happiness, but to (zde aionios) life everlasting, is 
strait and narrow, few there be that find it. 

" God so loved the world that He gave Flis only begot- 
ten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not 
perish " — this means vastly more than being miserable — 
" but have Everlasting Life." They who build on any 
other foundation will be completely overwhelmed, when 
the final test shall come ; — but they who build on Him, 
like the man who built on a rock, will never fall. 

Treasures laid up on earth will be lost — those that are 
laid up in heaven will be secure forever. He is the 
Bread that came down from heaven ; all who feed on this 
bread shall live forever. — But material bread, even the 
manna that was miraculously given, can nourish only for 
a limited time. Their fathers who ate of it in the wil- 
derness are dead, — but those who eat of the bread that 
He shall give them will never die. 

He gives the water of Life. Natural water is tran- 



Chap. XII.] 



LIFE VERSUS DEATH. 



223 



sient in its effects, — but the water that He gives will be, 
in those who drink it, a well of water springing up unto 
Everlasting Life. 

He is the true Vine. His people are the branches, and 
live by their union to Him as long as He lives, — but the 
branches that are severed from Him must wither and 
die, and are fit only to be burned. 

The kingdom of heaven is like a net that was cast into 
the sea, and gathered of every kind, which when it was 
full, they drew to shore and set down and " gathered the 
good into vessels " — " but cast the had avKty" It is 
like a field of grain. The good wheat is gathered into 
bundles and laid up in the gamer; — "hut the tares"— 
are not gathered into another garner to be kept — -but are 
gathered and burned in the fire" Again, it is like a mar- 
riage supper of which none are entitled to partake but 
such as have on the wedding garment. 

The wise virgins, whose lamps being filled with oil, are 
bright and burning, go in with the Bridegroom to the 
marriage, — but the foolish virgins, having no oil in their 
lamps are excluded and their lamps go out. Expositors 
w r ho teach that the lamp of life when once lighted up, 
can never be extinguished, have been greatly puzzled by 
this parable, and have been quite unable to agree upon 
w r hat is meant by these lamps and the oil by which they 
burn ; but when it is once admitted that human life is 
evanescent and must eventually go out, and that it is 
only the Divine Life in man, which the Lord Himself 
sustains, that endures forever, this parable is luminous 
and self-explanitory. 

By these and by numerous other figures and illustra- 
tions our Lord sets forth in contrast the perishable na- 
ture of earthly things, and the certain destruction of 
those who choose them as their chief good, — and the en- 



224 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part II. 



duriiig nature of heavenly things and the Eternal Life of 
those who seek them. This is the primary, fundamental 
idea that runs through all His teachings : Carnality, sin, 
and death, — Spirituality of mind, holiness and Life Ever- 
lasting. This is the contrast He is continually holding 
up before the minds of all men. This was, indeed, the 
grand object of His mission, to lift man up from his an- 
imalism, from sin and consequent death, into that higher, 
heavenly plane, in which only he could hope to live for- 
ever ; to give him, in the place of his old Adamic, nat- 
ural, carnal life, which cannot be perpetuated forever, a 
new spiritual life, — His own peculiar life, which is a life 
of immortal blessedness. This is the great salvation He 
offers in the Gospel : Not merely a rescue from sin and 
misery — but from Death itself, to which sin inevitably 
leads, when it is finished. 

The moral law which had been given by Moses to the 
Israelites was holy, and perfect in its adaptation to their 
earthly life, though none of them were able perfectly to 
keep it. Its penalty of death was a righteous penalty. 
But now He uncovers a higher, a spiritual sense of which 
they had hitherto had no conception. He shows it to be 
equally adapted to His spiritual kingdom. It needs no 
change. Its sanctions, Life and Death, are still the same, 
though now to be understood in a sense infinitely higher 
than that which pertains to this world. Everything be- 
longing to this world is material, sensual, perishable and 
evanescent. They who set their affections on it, and 
pursue its trifles must pass away with it. Everything 
pertaining to His spiritual kingdom is pure, incorruptible 
and eternal. The new life which He gives to His people 
is not their old life improved, rectified, and spiritualized, 
but it is a veritable, new life. They must be begotten 34 
again, from above, born again, and become new creatures. 



Chap. XII.] 



LIFE VERSUS DEATH. 



225 



Their desires, their affections, their aims, their motives 
of action, the hopes that inspire them, the means they 
employ, their weapons of offence and of defence are all 
spiritual. They still remain for a while longer in their 
mortal bodies, and their old psuehical life still lingers, 
like the flame of an expiring candle ; but all this is soon 
to be changed. Their bodies with all their lusts are to be 
cast off, and they are to be clothed with bodies that are 
pure and spiritual like unto His own glorious body. 
"For flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of 
God." In that world to which He will bring them "they 
neither marry nor are given in marriage — neither can they 
die any more" 

At the final judgment of the nations at His Second 
Coming, He will gather them all into two classes and 
only two, " And He shall separate them as a shepherd 
divideth his sheep from the goats. And He shall set the 
sheep on His right hand ; but the goats, on His left." 
" And these shall go away into everlasting punishment " — 
the punishment of " everlasting destruction," — " but the 
righteous into life eternal." It will be seen that the con- 
trast here is not between the everlasting happiness of the 
one class, and the everlasting misery of the other — as tra- 
ditionalists would have it, but between the Everlasting 
Life of the one, and the everlasting — punishment of the 
other — which, that the antithesis or contrast may be car- 
ried out, must be the punishment of Death, from which 
there is no resurrection — that is the Second Death. 

The Apostles take up the same contrast that the Mas- 
ter had taught them, and carry it out in all their Epistles. 
With them also there are but two classes ; those who 
walk after the flesh, and those who walk after the Spirit. 
They are contrasted in their characters and in their des- 
tinies. Whatever of joy and peace they may have on 
10* 



226 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part II. 



the one hand, in this life, from a sense of Divine favor, 
or whatever of sorrow and misery they may have, as the 
fruit of sin; this is not the contrast to which we are 
pointed. It is the result or end of their opposite courses. 
— To the one, it is Life Everlasting ; to the other, Death 
and destruction. Nowhere in all the Epistles can any 
such contrast be found as is drawn by modern theology — 
Eternal Happiness and Eternal Misery. No careful 
reader of the writings of Paul can fail to have noticed 
how continually he brings these two words zde and than- 
atos. Life and Death into juxtaposition and contrast. 
He scarcely ever mentions the one alternative without 
bringing the other into notice in the same connection. 
"To be carnally minded is Death ; but to be spiritually 
minded is Life and peace." "For if ye live after the 
flesh, ye shall die ; but if ye through the Spirit do mor- 
tify the deeds of the body ye shall live" Mark the an- 
tithesis. It is not ye are noio dead, morally dead, neither 
is it, ye shall die the natural death to which all are sub- 
ject — but ye shall die: — The Second Death is here 
evidently meant — so also, the words shall live point to 
the life — the Eternal Life beyond. 

" He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap 
corruption" (phthora), dissolution, decay, death, — the 
same word which Peter uses in speaking of those who as 
brute beasts utterly j)erisk in their own corruption, — " but 
he that soweth to the Spirit shall reap Life Everlasting " 
(zde aionios). 

" What fruit had ye then, in those things whereof ye 
are now ashamed? For the exd of those things is 
Death." " But now being made free from sin and 
become the servants of God, ye have your fruit unto holi- 
ness, and the end Everlasting Life." " For the wages 
of sin is Death; but the gift of God is Eternal Life 
through Jesus Christ our Lord." 



Chap. XII.] 



LIFE VERSUS DEATH. 



227 



The same contrast between the temporal and transitory 
lot of all who choose this world for their portion, and the 
enduring inheritance of those who are the children of 
God by a new birth, is found in the Epistles of Peter 
and John. "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, 
but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth 
and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the 
glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass wither- 
eth, and the flower thereof falleth away, but the Word 
of God endureth forever." "The world passeth away, 
and the lust thereof ; but he that doeth the will of God 
abideth forever." "He that hath the Son hath the Life, 
and he that hath not the Son hath not the Life." 

The antithesis here is not between future happiness 
and future misery ; but between Life and Death- — Eter- 
nal Life — zde aionios, and thanatos Death. We do not 
say Eternal Death; for there is no such expression in 
the Scriptures. We find it in modern theology, by which 
is meant a state of eternal misery. But in the Scriptures 
we simply find thanatos death. For Death itself is a 
finality, and our natural or Adamic death would have 
been a finality, had not Christ redeemed us all from this 
curse of the law. Hence all men will have a resurrec- 
tion ; but only those who have been born again will have 
a resurrection to Eternal Life. "The rest of the dead" 
rise only to condemnation, and a death from which there 
is no resurrection. It is therefore called the Second 
Death, Deuteros thanatos. The same word thanatos, 
death is used in both cases, for death is the end or ending 
of life, of whatever kind it is. But in the case of the 
two lives, two distinct words are used, for the two lives, 
the psuche life and the zde life as used in the Scriptures 
are quite distinct from each other ; the first, as we have 
already shown, is our natural life which is transitory ; the 



228 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



other is that spiritual life which we receive in the new 
birth. This is Eternal Life, hence it is called zbe aidnios. 
The Second death is put in apposition with this. If it 
indicated a state of sin and suffering which is eternal, 
there is no reason why the epithet aidnios. Eternal, 
should not be coupled with it as with zde, the new or 
second life. But this epithet is never joined with the 
word death in the Scriptures. Death is the negative of 
life, the absence of life, the withdrawal of all life and not 
a state or condition of existence, as the advocates of the 
doctrine of endless sin and suffering would like it to be. 

But we must cut short our citations and our remarks 
on them, that we may find room before closing this chap- 
ter, for the parallel contrast which Paul has drawn in 
Romans, Chapter V., and again in 2 Corinthians Chapter 
XV., between the First and the Second Adam. 

This parallel has always been a source of great per- 
plexity to those who hold to the Platonic doctrine of the 
natural immortality of man. And well it may be, so 
long as they hold to their anti-scriptural dogma. They 
must interpret it either on the one hand 5 so as to impugn 
the justice of God, or on the other, they must make non- 
sense of it. But if they could be persuaded to lay aside 
their blinding theory of the deathless nature of man, for 
the time being, and to give to the words Life and Death, 
which are the key words in the contrast, their true and 
natural sense, while reading it, they could not fail to see 
a clearness and beauty in the Apostle's argument of which 
they now seem to have no conception. 

We have only room to indicate in the briefest manner 
possible the main points in this parallel. Adam and 
Christ stand respectively at the head of two kingdoms or 
dispensations ; the one natural ; the other spiritual. The 



Chap. XII.] 



LIFE VERSUS DEATH. 



229 



natural or psuehical is first — " afterward that which is 
spiritual." Adam is a mere creature. He possesses at 
best, but a derived and dependent life. Christ as the 
Almighty Creator, is the Source and Fountain of all Life. 
To Adam, as an individual, was offered, and to us also 
through him as our representative, a natural, earthly im- 
mortality—conditioned upon perfect obedience — which 
was liable to be forfeited at any moment by sin. He for- 
feited it, both for himself and for us all by one act of 
sin. Christ also stood before the same law in the flesh, 
that He might become a perfect Saviour. His obedience 
was tested, " He was in all points tempted, as we are, yet 
without sin," and through Him is offered to us, who trust 
Him, a heavenly immortality which cannot be forfeited 
or lost. 

Adam was a mere earthly creature — at any rate, he be- 
came such after his sin — there was no spiritual life in 
him ; his carnal nature was predominant and alb controll- 
ing, therefore he could not be otherwise than mortal and 
transitory, He became the progenitor of a race like 
himself, destitute of spiritual life, carnal, selfish, sinful 
and necessarily mortal — mortal in every sense of the 
word. — Christ was a Spiritual Being ; though in the flesh 
for a time, His spiritual nature dominated the whole man. 
This nature is communicated to us through Him by a 
new spiritual birth. "Because He lives we live also." 

Because Adam sinned, we all must die, irrespective of 
our own individual deserts — even those "who have not 
sinned after the similitude of his transgression come 
under the same law of death by natural inheritance. — 
Because Christ died and rose again, " we shall all be 
made alive," irrespective of our individual deserts. Both 
the death of the body, and the resurrection of the body, 
are equally involuntary, and equally comprehensive of the 



230 THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Pail II. 

whole human family, and both without regard to individ- 
ual moral character. But there is a life beyond the 
present which becomes ours only by our individual per- 
sonal union to Him by faith. This is the Life Everlast- 
ing which is freely given to all who accept Him as their 
Saviour. And there is a Death beyond the present 
which is the " wages ; ' of our own individual sins, and 
under which all who reject Him as their Saviour must 
fall. This is the Second Death from which there is no 
recovery. This cannot mean " spiritual death,'' for it is 
the penalty of sin, and to suppose that God indicts spir- 
itual death or alienation of heart upon any man, would 
be absurd ; neither can it be 61 eternal misery " ; for there 
cannot be a first and a second eternal misery. Still fur- 
ther, if by death, eternal sin and misery be meant, as tradi- 
tionalists assert, then, there has been no redemption from 
the curse of the law, for any of the children of Adam. 
For Christ who has redeemed us, did not suffer eternal 
sin and misery, neither will the redeemed suffer any such 
penalty. Still further, again ; if immortality be the com- 
mon lot of all men, then all men are exempt from death. 
For immortality means exemption from death, and this 
means universal salvation. The fact is, those who would 
construe this penalty of the law as meaning anything 
else than Death in the plain obvious sense of the word, 
involve themselves in a net-work of difficulties and absurd- 
ities from which there is no exit, so long as they hold to 
their philosophical dogma of the deathless nature of man. 
But when it is once admitted that death means death, 
then the whole economy of the Law and its penalty, and 
of our redemption from its curse are perfectly clear and 
the justice and goodness of God are conspicuous. Christ 
by His death redeemed us all from the penalty of the 
first transgression ; but from the penalty of our own in- 



Chap, XII.] 



LIFE VERSUS DEATH. 



231 



dividual sins, there is no escape excepting by our per- 
sonal, voluntary acceptance of Him as our Saviour, — 
Life-giver — and the salvation He offers ; and this penalty 
is the Second death. 

What may be the disappointment, dismay, despair, 
and rage of those upon whom this penalty falls, and how 
long their miseries may be protracted, we. forbear to 
guess. We only know that they are in the hands of One 
who is holy, just and good ; One who would have saved 
them if they had been willing to become fit for Eternal 
Life. But "the weeping and gnashing of teeth," "the 
tribulation and anguish" of those who despised and re- 
jected the offered Saviour, when they shall see " many 
coming from the East and the West, from the North and 
South, and sitting down in the Kingdom of God and 
themselves thrust out," are not the penalty which is 
threatened, — they are only its accompaniments. That 
penalty is Death itself; from which there is no resurrec- 
tion. The same is true of the joys of the saved. These 
are not the gift of God through Jesus Christ ; they are 
its accompaniments, the gift itself — the " Unspeakable 
Gift " — is Eternal Life ; the rewards attendant on it 
depend on their personal faithfulness, and are propor- 
tioned to their individual deserts. " The wages of sin 
is death, but the gift of God is Eternal Life through Jesus 
Christ our Lord." 

To one who inquired of Mr. Spurgeon, what a certain 
passage of Scripture meant, he replied, " It means what 
it says." So we must say of the passage just quoted and 
of the many other similar passages in the Word of God 
by which the grand distinction between the saved and 
the unsaved is made known to us. Can it be possible 
that the Scriptures should ring out, from beginning to 
end with these two words Life and Death, Life and 



232 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



Death, the two most important words as regards the 
destiny of man in all the Bible ; words upon which the 
threatening^ of the Law and the promises of the Gospel 
are hinged, when they do not actually mean what they 
say ? Can it be possible that our Lord should so repeat- 
edly and emphatically represent the boon which He came 
to bring to perishing men as the boon of " Life from the 
dead" "Eternal Life" when He simply meant a certain 
condition of life ?• If the traditional doctrine of the 
natural immortality of all men be true, why should our 
Lord so uniformly have ignored it, yea, why should He 
have always and everywhere claimed that it is His pe- 
culiar prerogative to give Eternal Life, and never once 
have said or intimated that He meant by this, not the 
gift of life itself, but the gift of purity and happiness to 
men already immortal by nature ? 

This is incredible. Any theory of man that requires 
such a perversion of the plain letter of God's Word, that 
throws such discredit upon the sincerity of Him whose 
name is Truth to sustain itself, must be founded in error.* 

*\Ye cannot forbear to quote a few sentences from a recent 
tract by the Rev. W. A. Hobbs. missionary in India, that has 
just come to hand entitled, Everlasting Life; What is itf and 
how may men gain it ? 

"To understand ' Everlasting Life ' — as some people do — as simply 
a figure of speech meaning Everlasting Happiness, and to teach ig- 
norant persons that Everlasting Life and Everlasting Happiness are 
one and the same thing — because the immortality of every man is 
already presupposed as a natural endowment — is a gross perversion 
of the real meaning of words. Such an attempt to tone down 
the meaning of the word Life, probably would not have been thought 
of had not the notion that God created human beings an immortal 
race, necessitated the giving a figurative meaning to the words 
' Everlasting Life,' because their creed forbade acceptance in a 
literal sense of such terms as ' Perishing,' ' Destruction,' 1 Second 
Death,' etc., when applied by Holy Scripture to the wicked amongst 
men. 



Chap. XII.] LIFE VERSUS DEATH. 



233 



" Now if ' Everlasting Life ' means a continuity of existence in a 
glorified immortal body (after the resurrection to Life) for the be- 
liever in Christ only — as contrasted with our Lord's reference to per- 
ishing in the case of the unsaved — one can see at a glance, why the 
Saviour so persistently used these specific words: — But if all men 
are by nature immortal, then His almost exclusive use of the words 
'Life,' and ' Eternal Life' in relation the gift of God, is both ob- 
scure and unappreciable. If that which He so frequently held out 
as a privilege to men of faith was already a heritage, be it for weal 
or woe, of the whole human race, it would seem that the words 
Everlasting Happiness would have expressed His meaning much 
more clearly : but the fact remains that no less than thirty-seven 
times He called the blessing He had to give ' Life,' and not once 
did He speak of it as Happiness. Surely, it is much more rational 
to believe that Jesus Christ intended what He so repeatedly said, 
than to make Him say what the words do not mean — just that men 
may hug the unwarrantable notion that all the abominable and 
spiritually loathsome members of our race are stamped with the 
seal of Immortality." 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Texts and Arguments Commonly Used to Support 
the Traditional Dogma. 

We have read, with much care and attention, all the 
principal and more widely circulated volumes and essays 
and briefer arguments that have been published in sup- 
port of the traditional dogma of immortality in sin and 
misery, and in opposition to the doctrine of Immortality 
only in Christ ; but as we have had no intention of re- 
viewing or criticising any of them in this brief volume, 
and have desired especially to avoid all personalities 
and to confine ourself as closely as possible, to the ques- 
tion in hand, we have rarely alluded to any of them in 
• the foregoing pages — excej)ting in two or three instances 
when it could not well be avoided. But our topic in this 
chapter, seems to call for, at least a passing notice, of 
the arguments and methods employed by these writers. 
This we will make as brief and impersonal, as possible. 

We think, then, that we have good reason to complain 
of the method they joursue — for they all pursue substan- 
tially the same method. It seems to us more like — what 
is called among lawyers — " sharp practice " or " special 
pleading, 5 ' than any fair attempt to answer our Scrip- 
tural arguments, or to ascertain and set forth what the 
Scriptures really do teach on this question. 

We refer not now to the sneering and contemptuous 
language which so many of them employ toward us. 
This should be always expected, by those who venture to 
234 



Chap. XIII.] TEXTS AND ARGUMENTS. 



235 



question any venerable and popular tradition — especially 
one so venerable and popular as this. Nor do we refer 
to their very general and persistent misrepresentation of 
the doctrine we hold ; for this is a very common de- 
vice of men — of many, otherwise good men, w T e are 
sorry to say — when they are hard pressed in an argu- 
ment. Hence they persist, in spite of our remonstrance, 
in calling it the doctrine of Annihilation — implying — if 
they do not actually say so, that we are advocating a 
scientific absurdity; when in fact, our doctrine is just 
the opposite of this ; # not the doctrine of death, but of 
Life, — Eternal Life in Christ. They must know that it 
is only to the extinction of life, the destruction of the 
organization— of the personality of the individual, and 
not of the materials that enter into that conxposition, 
which we maintain. As for the term annihilation, it is no 
more applicable here, than when any living animal or 
thing loses its life and its individuality by disorganiza- 
tion and decay. * 

But we now refer, more especially, to what we must 
call a sophistical way of advocating their cause. 

For, in the first place, they assume the very point in 

*The author of Life and Death Eternal in his preface boldly 
says: " We have commonly employed the term " Annhilation" 
to designate the cessation of existence which these writers ad- 
vocate. We are aware that many of them object to the term 
as not being fully expressive of their mode of stating and ar- 
guing the case. We would only say that we cannot be de- 
barred the use of a convenient, indeed an indispensable term 
out of deference to their preferences." 

It may indeed be convenient and even indispensable for him 
to misrepresent and stigmatize the doctrine of his adversaries 
before attempting to disprove it, but is it honest ? He well 
knows it is not a question of annihilation, as that term is gen- 
erally understood — the annihilation of substance — but simply 
of the destruction of the individual. 



236 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part II. 



question ; — the natural immortality of man, or rather of 
the soul of man, as they prefer to phrase it, — and would 
in this way, rule us out of court, before the discussion 
begins. 

They assume that there is an M existence " which is 
common to all the children of Adam, the saved and the 
unsaved alike, an existence that is indestructible. They 
will not consent to have this existence called life, though 
it has all the attributes of life; memory, consciousness, 
the capacity to enjoy and suffer; for this would show 
at once, their antagonism to the Scriptures. Of course 
the Life (zoe), which is promised through Christ, and 
the death (thanatos), which is the penalty of sin when 
ir is finished, cannot be understood in any true or lit- 
eral sense. They must be figurative expressions to 
denote, on the one hand, the purity, happiness and 
blessedness that are engrafted upon the existence of 
the saved, and on the other, the pam, misery and 
wretchedness that are inflicted upon the existence of 
the lost. In other words, these terms " Life " and 
" Death,*' in the Scriptures, when man is spoken of, are 
to be taken only in an ethical sense, as indicating states 
or conditions of existence. They evidently experience 
great dirfieulty in finding any substitute for these plain 
terms " Life n and " Death." One of them, making no 
distinction between cause and effect, says that life means 
"union with God/' and death means " separation from 
Him" — Another, that life is "true functional action," 
and death, " false functional action": ignoring entirely 
that state in which there is the loss of all functional ac- 
tion, which only is actual death. Another says that life 
is " vitalizedness," and death " unvitalizedness " ! By 
these, and various other definitions, which need not to be 
cited, and by the habitual explanation and use of these 



Chap. XIII.] TEXTS AND ARGUMENTS. 



237 



words in an ethical and tropical sense, as denoting a state 
of purity and blessedness for the saved, and of sin and 
misery for the lost, on the part of these authors and com- 
mentators and teachers generally, who would sustain 
this dogma, this has come to be quite commonly under- 
stood to be the Scriptural sense of these terms, when the 
destiny of man is spoken of. They seem to think it 
strange that we will not accept of these definitions and 
explanations. They charge us with adhering too closely 
to the literal interpretation of the Scriptures, and of per- 
verting or misunderstanding the meaning of this word 
H existence." But is it not they who misinterpret it to 
serve their own convenience ? 

It ought to be evident to every reflecting person, that 
existence is a broader word than either life or death. 
Anything that is, may be said to exist, whether it have 
life or not ; as for instance, a particle of matter, a stone, 
an animal, or a man. But anything, of which life is the 
chief or essential attribute, cannot be said to exist as 
such, without life. For example, an animal cannot prop- 
erly be said to exist as an animal, after life is gone. 
What is an animal? "It is an organized living being, 
endowed with sensation, and the power of voluntary 
action" (Webster). Of course, if these essential quali- 
ties of sensation and voluntary motion which constitute 
an animal, are wanting, something may exist in its place, 
'but surely it is not an animal. It may be the dead body, 
or the bones, or the skin, or the remains of an animal, but 
not the animal itself. Much more, is this true of a soul, 
which is life itself ; for the same terms nephesh (Heb.), 
'psuche (Greek), are alternatively and almost indifferently 
translated " soul" and "life " in the Scriptures. What- 
ever difference philosophy may have taught us to put 
upon these terms, at the present day, their meaning is 



238 THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part II. 

nearly or quite identical in the Scriptures. We main- 
tain then, that the existence of a life without life, or a 
soul without life, which is all that constitutes it a soul, is 
an impossibility. And especially to talk of a soul having 
all the attributes of life, such as consciousness, memory, 
the capacity to suffer and the power of action, and yet 
without life, is to talk nonsense, or fiction. And yet this 
is what they charge, not merely upon the poetical por- 
tion of God's Word, but upon its plain, sober, judicial 
portions, yea upon all its utterances on this question of 
the future lot of man. 

They not only assume for themselves the very point to 
be proved, — the necessary immortality or eternal exist- 
ence of all men, — but carry it with them, into the inter- 
pretation of the Scriptures, and would have us to do the 
same. And when we ask them to point us to one single 
passage in which any such doctrine is asserted, they say 
that these inspired writers of Scripture assume it also, as 
well as themselves ; that it is so evident as to require no 
such formal setting forth. And then in default of any 
such testimony, they do not hesitate — as we have al- 
ready sufficiently shown, in a previous chapter — to take 
those passages which predicate Immortality of the right- 
eous alone, which are very numerous, and apply them to 
all men indiscriminately, in this way setting at naught 
the real essential distinction, which the Scriptures every- 
where make, between the righteous and the wicked ; 
namely, that of Life and Death. 

Coming then to the argument with an assumption that 
begs the whole question, and discarding the very first 
principles of fair argumentation and Scriptural interpre- 
tation, it would be strange indeed, if among all the many 
passages relating to sin and its fearful consequences, the 
miseries it brings in this life, and the certain ruin to 



Chap. XIII.] TEXTS AND ARGUMENTS. 239 

which it leads, and especially, those that depict the re- 
mediless condition of those who reject the Gospel, some 
might not be found, that could be so interpreted as to 
seem to favor the doctrine of endless misery. The char- 
acter of the teachings of the Bible is such ; its utter- 
ances are expressed in such a variety of ways and con- 
nections, and they are so scattered throughout the whole 
Volume, that, by taking isolated passages here and there, 
it is not difficult if one is so disposed, to make out a 
plausible case, in behalf of any proposition he may wish 
to argue. Hence there has never been any notion so 
wild and misleading, or so contrary to the general spirit 
and tenor of God's Word, that its partisans have not been 
able, by seeking for it, to find some apparent encour- 
agement in that Word for it, and to produce their 
" proof texts " in its favor. It is of no avail whatever, to 
cite any number of passages, that contradict their doctrine, 
however clear and explicit they may be ; for they know 
how to explain them all away, or to read another mean- 
ing into them, or at least to offset them by certain other 
texts, taken from the poets, sacred or profane, in which 
the same or similar words or forms of expression are 
used in a figurative sense. As the cunning magicians of 
Pharaoh, who confronted Moses when he attempted to 
prove by the exhibition of an actual miracle, that he 
spoke by Divine authority, were able to match it by a 
spurious one of their own devising, and in this way to nul- 
lify its influence and to harden the heart of their master 
against the truth ; so the advocates of false doctrines, by 
adroit and too often unscrupulous methods, are able to 
" pervert the right ways of the Lord," and to blind the 
minds of their followers to His truth. 

If you grant to the advocates of this traditional 
dogma the privilege of begging the question to be 



240 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



proved, in the outset, and of assuming that the Sacred 
writers take it for granted without asserting it, and then, 
of changing the meaning of all the plain Scriptural 
words, that contradict their theory, and of reading their 
own views into passages that do not otherwise express 
them, and still further, of offsetting all the direct and 
literal assertions of God's Word, in regard to the death 
and destruction of the wicked, by certain other passages 
wherever they can be found, in which similar expressions 
are used in a figurative sense, it is impossible but that 
they should be able to make some show of an argument 
in favor of their cause. And yet this is the privilege 
which they — or, at least, many of them, claim. 

In the volume entitled Life and Death Eternal, many 
pages — indeed one whole chapter — is devoted to this one 
object of showing that the terms, "death," "destruc- 
tion," "perdition," and the many other terms in which 
the lot of the wicked is described, are never to be taken 
in their true, literal sense, because, forsooth, in the book 
of Job, and elsewhere, similar expressions are used in a 
figurative sense. The author takes up these various 
terms seriatim, and finds something to match them, of a 
tropical import, in some other portion of the Bible ; 
This is what he himself avows, in his table of contents, 
as the substance of Chapter IV. 

"• Anniliilationists attempt to press several other words 
and phrases " (having considered the term "death" in a 
foregoing chapter j "to their support.— The attempt re- 
futed in the following instances : destroy and destruction ; 
perish and perdition ; lose and lost ; consume and de- 
vour ; tear in pieces, break in pieces ; grind to powder; 
cut off; blot out; not be: be as nothing; -be naught; 
end; burn; burn up ; put under his feet. The futility 
of the annihilational argument shown by numerous quo- 
tations from the Mouth of Job, who, while uttering them, 
should have been extinct more than twenty times." 



Chap. XIII.] TEXTS AND ARGUMENTS. 241 

Therefore — for this is the conclusion to which he 
would lead us — whatever is said in the Scriptures by 
God Himself, or by His inspired servants, or by Jesus 
Christ and His disciples, soberly, positively, judicially, 
by way of warning and threatening, of the penalty of 
sin, and of its sure and certain results, is not to be taken 
in any true and literal sense, as meaning what is said, but 
only in such a poetical, mythical, transcendental sense, as 
the philosophy of Plato may find it convenient to accord 
to it ! 

Those who have been educated under the influence of 
this system of philosophy, and have followed the lead of 
these teachers, without any careful examination of the 
Scriptures for themselves on this question, are under the 
impression that this heathen dogma, of the necessary im- 
mortality of all souls, and the consequent doom of endless 
sin and misery of the unsaved, is abundantly taught in 
the Word of God. But when they come to investigate 
this point for themselves in an independent manner — if 
they ever do, — they are surprised to find, not merely, that 
it is not taught at all in the Scriptures, but that there are 
so few, so very few texts to be found in all the Bible, that 
can be made to give any encouragement to such a con- 
clusion. There is scarcely any other false doctrine of the 
Papal church, which we, as Protestants, admit to be 
false, that cannot make a better show of support than 
this. We do not hesitate to affirm, after the most thor- 
ough examination, that there are not more than half a 
dozen passages in all the Bible, that would even suggest 
the idea of endless sin and suffering, to one who did not 
bring with him to its reading;, this thought in his own 
mind. It is only by first reading this doctrine into these 
few texts, and putting them into false connections, and 
repeating them over and over again, and ringing changes 
11 



242 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT, 



[Part II. 



on certain specious epithets they contain, that this cause 
is saved from absolute beggary. 

We propose now, to examine critically, these half a 
dozen texts, not that we may " explain them away," as is 
sometimes said, but that we may bring them back again 
to their true meaning, from which they have been per- 
verted — that we may recover them, like the sacred ves- 
sels, from the hands of the Philistines, and set them in 
their rightful place in the tabernacle of God. 

The following passage in Isaiah 33 : 14. " Who among 
us shall dwell with devouring fire ? who among us shall 
dwell with everlasting burnings ? " is sometimes quoted 
to help out the rhetoric of those who are trying to de- 
scribe the torments of the lost, and to give as lurid a 
glare as possible to the picture. It is possible that 
unlettered, and superficial readers may be led to suppose 
that the prophet is here speaking of the sufferings of the 
lost in hell ; but the most cursory glance at the context 
will show, that the future state is not here in question, 
but he' refers simply to the temporal miseries that are in- 
flicted upon his people by their enemies. And in any 
case the evident reply which his exclamatory inquiry in- 
vites is, "No one can endure them." There are, perhaps, 
two or three other similar expressions of impassioned out- 
bursts of feeling which we need not stop to notice in this 
category ; for no intelligent reader can mistake their 
meaning, or regard them as having any relevancy to the 
question under consideration. 

Without stopping to comment on this, or other ir- 
relevant passages, we now proceed to examine in their 
order these half a dozen texts, upon which the advocates 
of the doctrine of endless sin and misery principally rely 
for the support of their cause. 



Chap. XIII.] TEXTS AND AEGUMENTS, 



243 



I. 

Daniel 12: L " And many of them that sleep in the 
dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, 
and some to shame and everlasting contempt" 

There are various translations of this passage ; that 
given by Tregelles, who will not be suspected of having 
any heretical bias, together with other eminent Hebrew 
scholars, renders it thus : " And many, from among the 
sleepers of the dust, shall awake : these (who awake) 
shall be unto everlasting life ; but those (the rest of the 
sleepers who do not awake) shall be unto shame and 
everlasting contempt." So also the learned Aben Ezra, 
in his commentary on this chapter, quotes Rabbi Saadias 
as declaring that, " Those who awake shall be (appointed) 
to everlasting life, and those who do not awake, shall be 
(doomed) to shame and everlasting contempt." Accept- 
ing this as the true rendering, as is probable from the 
context, there is no reference here at all to the resurrec- 
tion of the wicked, but only to that of the righteous, in 
what is termed the First resurrection, at the second ad- 
vent of Christ, immediately after " the great tribulation," 
as depicted in the first verse of this chapter, and more 
fully described in Matt. 24 : 21-30. 

But whatever may be the true rendering, the reader 
should observe how this epithet, everlasting, is applied ; 
first to the life of the righteous, which is declared to be 
"everlasting life," and secondly to the contempt (or ab- 
horring, which is the rendering given to the same word 
in Is. 66 : 24), with which the wicked shall ever be re- 
garded by the righteous. This contempt, the righteous, 
who will live forever, may well entertain forever toward 
all the wicked who perish, as we now entertain a con- 
tempt for the treachery of Judas, eighteen centuries after 
he has passed away. Hence it is called in the text " ever- 



244 THE UX SPEAK ABLE GIFT. [Part II. 

lasting contempt." But as for the shame, which is sub- 
jective on the part of the wicked, and may be supposed 
to be felt by themselves — the inspired writer is careful 
not to characterize it by the epithet everlasting ; for the 
passage reads " shame and everlasting contempt." And 
yet many quote this passage thus: "Everlasting shame 
and contempt," and charge the inspired prophet — whether 
inadvertently or for the purpose of strengthening th-ii 
position, we will not decide— with saying just what he 
was so careful not to say. The author of Life and Death 
Eternal, we are sorry to notice, does this same thing, as 
follows : 

" The two eternal conditions proceed cotemporane- 
ously. Daniel 12 : 2, also describes in the same utter- 
ance the ' life ' of the righteous and the 8 shame ' of 
the wicked by the same epithet 1 everlasting.' It cannot 
without violence be understood otherwise than as declar- 
ing them to be equally and in the same sense everlast- 
ing"!! (p. 332.) 

The above text is the only solitary one, that we know 
of, in all the Old Testament, that seems to be available 
for the support of the dogma we are opposing. And 
even this has no force whatever in this direction, except- 
ing by mistranslating and misquoting it. 

II. 

Coining now to the New Testament, the first te.vt 
that claims our attention is the following : 

Matt. 25: 46. "And these shall go away into ever- 
lasting punishment : but the righteous into life eternaV 

L The Gospel of Matthew was written especially for 
the Jews, and no doubt, originally, in the Hebrew lan- 
guage. The Greek text, which we now have, is sup- 
posed to be a translation from the Hebrew, and our ver- 
sion is made not directly from the Hebrew manuscript, 



Chap. XIII.] TEXTS AND ARGUMENTS. 



245 



which is lost, but from the Greek, and is a translation of 
a translation. In some of the earlier Latin versions, 
which were probably made from the Hebrew, the words 
which are rendered " eternal punishment " from the Greek 
kolasin aionion, are in those Latin versions, not sup* 
plicium wternum, " eternal punishment," but ignem ceter- 
num, "eternal fire." This is probably the true rendering, 
as it is the expression used in verse 41, and elsewhere. 
There is, however, no important doctrine involved in this 
question of the true rendering, — unless one should insist 
on giving an exclusively subjective meaning to the word 
(kolasin) punishment, in the interest of the traditional 
dogma of endless suffering, as some of our opponents 
are inclined to do ; this, by the way, may account for 
the substitution of the word kolasin in the place of 
ignem; for we shall find, that other passages bearing on 
this question, have evidently been tampered with to give 
them more force in this direction. But, accepting of the 
common rendering, it is to be remarked : 

2. That neither this nor any other rendering of the text 
will sustain the impression, once very commonly enter- 
tained, that this scene is intended to represent the general 
judgment of mankind as individuals consequent on the 
resurrection. Nothing is here said of the resurrection of 
the dead, nor of salvation by grace through Christ, nor 
mdeed of individuals as such. But we are expressly 
told, it is the judgment of the " nations," or rather of 
the Gentiles, at the second coming of Christ. Our 
translators probably understood it according to the 
popular impression, as representing the final judgment 
of all mankind, after the resurrection. Therefore, by 
suppressing the little word "to," the, and by rendering 
the phrase " ta panta ethne" all nations — instead of all 
the Gentiles, as they usually — in more than ninety in- 



246 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



stances, — have rendered it, they have done what they 
could to sustain the popular impression. The word ta y 
the, is however restored in the Revised version and the 
phrase is rendered " all the nations." It would have 
more exactly expressed the sense in which those Jews, 
to whom our Lord spoke, understood it, if it had been 
rendered " all the Gentile nations "; for this was their 
usual way of designating all other nations of the world 
but their own. 

It will be seen by referring to the chapters immediately 
preceding, that our Lord had been uttering a series of 
parables — parables of. judgment, of which this is the 
seventh and last. Most of the others may perhaps be re- 
garded as more especially applicable to the people of the 
Jewish nation. This seems to have been uttered in an- 
swer to the inquiry of His disciples (Chap. 24 : 3), " What 
shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the consummation 
of the age?" (see marginal reading in Revised Version), 
and is of a more general character. Hence, He replies, 
"When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all 
the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit on the throne 
of His glory, and before Him shall be gathered all the 
nations," etc. While it seems quite evident that this 
should be understood as a prophetic parable referring to 
the judgment of the nations of the world, at the second 
coming, we have no purpose to serve in construing it, 
to the exclusion of the Jewish nation, but to bring out 
the truth, which our Lord intended to express, and which 
they understood Him to utter. Xor indeed, have we any 
other anxiety or desire to correct the popular impression 
concerning it, as a description of the general judgment of 
mankind after having been raised from the dead.* 

* "This chapter describes a judgment of the living nations of 
mankind by the Son of Man. This, however, does not exclude 



Chap. XIII.] TEXTS AND ARGUMENTS. 247 

Let it be so understood if any one so desires and we 
will proceed; 

3. To notice the rendering of this word aidnios. It 
occurs twice in this verse ; — Jcolasin aidnion, and men 
aionion; — in the first instance, it is rendered "everlasting 
punishment," and in the second, " life eternal" It 
should have had the same rendering in both cases, and 
so it has in our Revised Version. It would not seem 
necessary to call attention to so small a matter were it 
not for the fact, that some are inclined to regard the 
word everlasting as having more strength and force than 
the word eternal. Perhaps the original translators did ; 
for they have most evidently in other instances, if not in 
this, shown all the favor they possibly could to the tradi- 
tional doctrine, which relies on these few passages for 
support. Whether this word here is to be taken in its 
fullest sense of endlessness, or in an indefinite sense, or 
in the more limited sense of an age long period, which it 
often has, it certainly has the same meaning and should 
have had the same rendering in both cases ; for the allot- 
ments of both classes are plainly represented as parallel 
and synchronous. 

4. But granting that this passage describes the gen- 
eral judgment of individuals, and that aidnios is to be 
taken here in the infinite sense of endlessness, it is not 
to be assumed, nor conceded, that kolasin, if this were 
the true original term, is to be understood merely in a 
subjective sense, as meaning simply suffering, as our op- 

the thought that His work of judgment comprehends also the 
generation of the dead. But here is portrayed the period of 
of crisis and culmination in His work of judgment, so far as 
the earth is the area of it. Other Scriptures, as for example 
Uev. 20, teach that it must ultimately extend itself through 
all the regions of the dead, until even death and hell are cast 
into the lake of fire." The Mystery of Creation, p. 1G6. Rev. 
L. C. Bakek. 



24* 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



ponents would have it.* It has an objective and admin- 
istrative sense, which they would ignore, if they could. 
There may be a punishment of deprivation, as well as 
that of stripes. It is the barbarian's notion of punish- 
ment to make it consist entirely, or as much as possible, 
of positive pain and agony prolonged to the utmost 
limit. During the dark ages this was the kind of pun- 
ishment, it was supposed, that God would inflict, and 
tradition has handed down the notion to this day, among 
a certain class of theologians. But under all Christian 
and civilized governments, now existing, punishment is 
vindicative, rather than vindictive ; it is not so much 
the object of wise rulers, to see how much agony they 
can inflict upon offenders, and how long they can pro- 
tract it, as how they can best maintain the authority and 
majesty of the government. Hence, punishment con- 
sists more largely of the denial of privilege that other- 
wise might have been enjoyed, and in the deprivation of 
rights that have been forfeited. The very highest kind 
of punishment, called "capital punishment," consists of 
taking away the life of the criminal, and yet this is in- 
flicted with as little pain as possible ! So, under the 
Divine government, those sinners who are found in the 
judgment to be unworthy to live, and whose names are 
blotted out of " The Book of Life," whether they are cast 
at once into the fires of Gehenna, like the tares from the 
wheat field, or the chaff from the threshing floor, to 
which they are compared, or whether they are left to 
" perish in their own corruption," may truly be said to 
be punished, not merely while the process of destruction 
is going on, but when it is finished, to have suffered an 

*This is the position of the author of Life and Death Eternal. 
He labors earnestly through two or three chapters (see Chaps. 
YL and Vii.), to maintain it. "Future punishment consists in 
suffering," is the caption of one of the chapters. 



Chap. XIII.] TEXTS AND ARGUMENTS. 249 

" eternal punishment." For they have been cut off from 
privileges which will be enjoyed forever by others, and 
which they also might have forever -enjoyed, but for 
their sins, and their rejection of the salvation once 
offered them. There is nothing said of torment in the 
text. Nor is there anything in the word, Jcolasis, to in- 
dicate it. It simply reads " everlasting punishment." 
The verb kolazd^ from which this noun is derived, means 
"to prune," "to cut off," "to check," "to repress," as 
well as " to inflict torture " ; and this idea of cutting off 
forever, expresses quite as well, if not better, the mean- 
ing of the noun Jcolasis. And when we find the punish- 
ment of sin everywhere else in the Word of God de- 
clared to be deaths and when in 2 Thes. 1 : 9, this is ex- 
pressly said to be the punishment of everlasting de- 
struction, what right has any one to say it is not ? 

5. We often hear it said, that this text proves that 
the torments of the lost will endure as long as the 
joys of the saved. It proves no such thing. If, in- 
deed, the comparison here were between the torments of 
the one class and the joys of the other, one might very 
properly draw this inference. But there is no such com- 
parison in the text. It is forced into this passage by the 
reader himself. What then is the comparison, or rather 
the contrast here instituted ? It is between the allot- 
ments of these two classes. To the one it is the allot- 
ment of Everlasting Life. Of course this life is pure 
and joyful, or it could not be everlasting ; it is the 
life of Christ Himself in His people, which, of necessity, 
endures forever. But nothing is said of their joys in 
the passage. To the other, it is just the opposite, — the 
loss of this Everlasting Life ; it is the punishment of 
death and destruction. Whatever pains may be in- 
flicted, or whatever anguish endured in the process, 
11* 



250 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II, 



nothing is said of these here. And most evidently the 
contrast is not completed till the death, from which there 
is no recall ensues : " Sin, when it is finished, bringeth 
forth deaths * 

Now whether this prophetic parable be interpreted 
as referring to the judgment of the nations at the second 
advent, or that of individuals at the last day, the lesson 
taught is the same. If to the former, it agrees perfectly 
with what is said elsewhere, in the Psalms and by the 
prophets, of the utter destruction of those nations that 
do not conform to the spirit and precepts of the Gospel — 
" For the nation and kingdom that will not serve Thee 
shall perish ; yea those nations shall be utterly wasted ! " 
if to the latter, it is what we are abundantly told, from 
the beginning to the end of the Scriptures, "that only 
the good wheat will be gathered into the garner for eter- 
nal preservation, and that the chaff will be burned up 
with unquenchable fire." 

6. Perhaps we should not leave this passage without 
remarking on the phrase (eis to pur to aidnion) " ever- 
lasting fire (in verse 41) prepared for the devil and his 

*The certainty that the blessedness of the righteous will be 
truly everlasting does not depend altogether on the use of the 
adjective aidnios, in connection with the life promised to 
them. We are assured of this by a great variety of expres- 
sions. The heavenly inheritance is declared to be u incorrup- 
tible, underlled and unfading," and "the crown of glory one 
that fadeth not away." ''This corruptible must put on in- 
corruption, and this mortal put on immortality." The future 
life of Christ's faithful servants is set forth as flowing from 
Him, and being like unto His life. " Because He lives, they 
shall live also." 44 He is their life." "They shall be made 
like unto Him. " "Whether they wake or sleep, they are to 
live together with Him." " They are to be forever [pantote), 
with the Lord." "Their vile bodies are to be changed and 
fashioned like unto His glorious body." Appeal to Scripture. 
R&v. J. Babton. 



Chap. XIII.] TEXTS AND ARGUMENTS. 251 

angels." The same phrase occurs in Matt. 18 : 8. But 
elsewhere, as in Mark 9 : 43 (which we will notice in its 
proper place), also in Matt. 3 : 12, and Luke 3 : 17, the 
epithet asbestos, unquenchable, is used, — to designate a 
fire that is irresistible, that cannot be stayed from doing 
its work of destruction. But whether the epithet asbes- 
tos^ unquenchable, or aidnios^ eternal, be predicated of 
the fire, nothing of the sort is predicated of the wicked 
who are cast into it. If one chooses to understand 
these words in their absolute and unlimited sense, we do 
not care to contest the point with him. Be it that this 
element is perpetual and eternal in its existence and ever 
ready to do the bidding of the Supreme Ruler, if one 
wishes so to understand these expressions. But surely, 
this gives him no warrant for transferring these epithets 
to the worthless material that is cast into it to be con- 
sumed. The fire of Gehenna, in the valley of Hinnom, 
is said to have been continually kept up — not because 
the carcasses that were thrown into it were never con- 
sumed, but because it w T as continually supplied with 
fresh material for consumption. What may have been 
the uses of this fire of God in the eternal past, or what 
may be its uses in the eternal future in burning up the 
chaff, and whatever is vile, and unworthy to be pre- 
served — in cleansing, in purifying this universe and 
keeping it pure (as the word pur imports), we cannot say. 
But the conclusion that God keeps this fire perpetually 
burning, not for the purpose of consuming what is worth- 
less and vile, but for the very purpose of tormenting 
those whom He cannot or will not destroy, and that they 
must be indestructible because this is the nature of the 
fire into which they are cast, is not merely a slanderous 
imputation on the character of God, but it is reached by 
a feat of argumentation such as nothing but a desperate 
cause would employ. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Texts and Arguments Commonly Used to Support 
the Traditional Dogma (Continued). 

III. 

Mark 3 : 28, 29. "All sins shall be forgiven unto 
the sons of men and blasphemies wherewith soever they 
shall blaspheme — but he that shall blaspheme against the 
Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of 
eternal damnation " 

This passage, like the other passages that are the prin- 
cipal reliance of those who would maintain the doctrine 
of eternal sin and suffering — as we have already noticed 
and shall have occasion to notice again — has evidently 
been tampered with. The Greek text varies in different 
manuscripts. Some read aioniou kolasids, " eternal pun- 
ishment," or excision; others aioniou kriseos eternal 
condemnation, or judgment or damnation as in our com- 
mon version. But other manuscripts, which are supposed 
to be more authoritative, have aioniou amartematos eter- 
nal sin, and this is the rendering adopted in the Revised 
Version. 

Those who hold to the idea of a future probation, and 
to the restoration of some sinners during an intermediate 
state, think they find some hint of it here, and in a few 
other passages of like import. Be that as it may, there 
is nothing to encourage the idea of eternal suffering here. 
The amended rendering is not "guilty," or chargeable 
with eternally sinning — for no one can be guilty of an 
252 



Chap. XI V.] TEXTS AND ARGUMENTS. 



253 



act which is eternally future, — but " guilty of an eternal 
sin" — eternal in its consequences, one that is never to be 
forgiven, or in other words, of a " mortal sin," which 
brings certain remediless death. There is another pas- 
sage of similar import, in which the wrath of God is 
said to abide on the sinner, which perhaps we should no- 
tice in this connection, namely : " He that believeth on 
the Son hath Everlasting Life, and he that believeth not 
the Son, shall not see life ; but the wrath of God oMdeth 
on him" (John 3 : 36) , The wrath of God may be said 
to abide on men as long as they continue in sin, and if 
they were to continue to sin forever, then, no doubt, His 
wrath would abide on them forever. But this is just the 
point to be first established, before any such doctrine can 
be founded on it. There is no such assertion, nor any im- 
plication to this effect in the passage. It is only as one 
assumes, that they do live forever in sin, and reads this 
idea into the passage, that it seems to have any bearing 
on the question. 

The word mend, abide, must have its limitation in the 
object spoken of. It frequently occurs in the Scriptures. 
Mary " abode " with Elizabeth three months. Christ 
" abode " with Zaccheus over night, Erastus " abode " 
at Corinth, — how long we are not told, but surely not 
forever. We are told, however, that, " He that doeth 
the will of God abideth forever" menei eis ton aidna. 
But we are not told that they abide forever, who do not 
the will of God, nor that the " wrath of God abideth 
on them" — forever ; but on the contrary that He is to 
all such " a consuming fire." 



254 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part II. 



IV. 

Mark 9 : 43-50. "If thy right hand offend thee, cut it 
off: it is better for thee to go into life maimed, than hav- 
ing two hands to go into hell {ten geennan, the Gehenna), 
into the fire that never shall be quenched {to pur to as- 
beston, inextinguishable fire), [Where the worm clieth 
not and the fire is not quenched.] And if thy foot of- 
fend thee, cut it off; it is better for thee to enter halt into 
life than having two feet to be cast into hell ( Gehenna), 
[into the fire that never shall be quenched, where the 
worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched]. And if 
thine eye offend thee, pluck it out ; it is better for thee to 
enter into the Kingdom of God, with one eye, than hav- 
ing tioo eyes to be cast into hell ( Gehenna ) [fire] where 
the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched" 

1. Before trying to ascertain the true meaning of 
this passage, it would be desirable, if it were possible, to 
get hold of the original text. But this is probably hope- 
less ; for like all the other passages relating to the doom 
of the wicked, it has undergone so many changes at the 
hands of partisan transcribers and others, and this work 
was begun so early that it is not possible to know cer- 
tainly what was the original text. But the best scholars 
agree in rejecting several clauses, — those that we have 
included in brackets, — as spurious interpolations, and 
they are omitted in our Revised Version. Perhaps these 
additions were not made with any purpose of changing 
the meaning of the passage, — nor do they essentially 
change it, — but with the pious (?) endeavor to make it 
express more emphatically and impressively the senti- 
ment the manipulators had in their own minds. In fact, 
King James' translators seem to have joined in this 
pious effort, for, in translating the word to pur to as- 
beston, they have interpolated a little prophecy of their 



Chap. XIV.] TEXTS AND ARGUMENTS. 



255 



own into the text ; and instead of simply rendering it, 
" the unquenchable fire," as they should have done, as 
this is all that the original words mean, they have said 
"the fire that never shall be quenched" This word 
asbestos is composed of two parts, the a privative, and 
sbestos from shennumi, to quench or extinguish. This a 
privative, no more means never shall be, in this place, 
than it does when prefixed to any other Greek word : 
for instance, oratos means visible, and aoratos means in- 
visible. No one would think of translating it never 
shall be visible. 

2. The word here rendered, "hell," is not hades, but 
Gehenna, the name of that valley outside of the walls of 
Jerusalem, into which dead carcasses and the offal of 
the city were cast, to be consumed by the fires that 
were kept constantly burning for this purpose, and by 
the devouring worms. It was not a place of torture for 
the living, but a place for the consumption of whatever 
was vile and offensive. It was not even a place of pun- 
ishment, excepting so far as this ignominious disposal of 
the bodies that were cast into it, as not worthy of a 
decent burial, might be regarded as a punishment. 
Hence, the word Gehenna became a synonym of the 
most ignominious kind of destruction. This is the sense 
in which our Lord uses it elsewhere, as in Matt. 5 : 22, 
"Whosoever is angry with his brother, without a cause, 
shall be in danger of the judgment (condemnation of 
the judge,) and whosoever shall say to his brother Haca, 
shall be in danger of the council (Sanhedrim), but 
whosoever shall say thou fool, shall be in danger of hell 
fire" (the Gehenna of fire). He is here to be under- 
stood as teaching, that it would be better to part with 
whatever is the most dear in this life, than to be led by 
it, to the loss of the life to come and to remediless ruin. 



256 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



3. The phrase "where the worm that-dieth not, and 
the fire is not quenched," is evidently a quotation from 
the last verse in the prophecy of Isaiah ; which reads 
thus : " And they shall go forth and look upon the car- 
casses of the men that have transgressed against Me ; 
for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be 
quendied and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh." 
We have in the concluding verses of this prophecy, a 
graphic picture of the restoration of the kingdom of 
Israel, and the final overthrow, and complete and utter 
destruction of all their enemies; and their decaying 
bodies are represented as food for the devouring worms, 
and the consuming fires of the valley of Gehenna. Our 
Lord applies this description to the case of the miserable 
destruction of all sinners. But those who would insist 
on using this reference, not as a symbol of the sure and 
fearful destruction of the wicked, according to the origi- 
nal meaning of these words, but as a symbol of the eter- 
nal preservation of the wicked in torment, find these 
figures too gross and revolting for any literal application ; 
and so they spiritualize them — by whose authority no 
one can tell — by saying that " the unquenchable fire " 
means a tormenting conscience that can never be quieted, 
and " the worm that dieth not," means a gnawing mem- 
ory that never dies ; and this conceit has been handed 
down from one religious teacher to another, and been so 
often repeated, that it is regarded by many as the real 
orthodox teaching of the Bible. But in order to get any 
support from this text for the doctrine of eternal sin and 
suffering, the advocates of this doctrine are obliged, not 
only to hold, that these worms are immortal worms, but 
also to understand this word die, when applied to them, 
in a sense just opposite and contrary to that when ap- 
plied to sinful men. In the first case, the worms that are 



Chap. XIV.] TEXTS AND ARGUMENTS. 



257 



said not to die, are taken to be immortal, and in the sec- 
ond case, sinners who shall die, according to the declara- 
tion of the same Scriptures — they too, are taken to be 
immortal ! This is the kind of exegesis to which they 
are reduced in their endeavor to sustain the doctrine of 
eternal sin and suffering ! And this they claim as one 
of their strong proof texts. 

V. 

The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, 

Luke 16: 19-31. u There was a certain rich man, which was 
clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: 
and there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at 
Ms gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which 
fell from the rich man's table; moreover, the dogs came and licked 
his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was 
carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also 
died, and was buried: and in hell (hades), he lifted up his eyes, 
being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his 
bosom. And he cried, and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on 
me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in 
water, and cool my tongue: for I am tormented in this flame. But 
Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst 
thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things : but now he is 
comforted, and thou art tormented. And besides all this, between 
us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would 
pass from hence to you, cannot; neither can they pass to us, that 
woidd come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, 
father, that thou voouldest send him to my father's house: for I 
have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also 
come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They 
have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, 
Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead> 
they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses 
and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose 
from the dead.'" 

It is upon this parable more than on any other portion 
of Scripture, that our opponents rely for the support of 



258 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



their doctrine of immortality in sin and misery. It 
enters into all their arguments on this question. It is 
thought to contain the materials for answering all objec- 
tions, and silencing all cavils. It is taken for granted, 
that our Lord here teaches, and intended to teach — that 
the dead are conscious, that the souls of all men are im- 
mortal, and that on leaving this world, all men go at 
once into a state of blessedness and joy, or of torment 
that is absolutely unchangeable and eternal. It has fur- 
nished the materials, by the help of a lively imagination 
and fervid rhetoric, for the most fearful pictures of the 
never-ending agonies of the lost, in the world of despair. 
It has been employed as the theme of more terrific dis- 
courses, and exhortations and appeals than, perhaps, any 
other portion of Scripture. And yet when one comes to 
examine it soberly and carefully, he can find no good 
reason to suppose that our Lord intended to teach any- 
thing whatever in regard to the state of the dead. He 
had altogether another purpose, as we shall see. 

That this is a parable, a proplietAc parable and not a 
• biographical sketch, is quite evident. It must then be 
treated as a parable, and be understood as a parable, to 
illustrate and enforce a certain truth. Its metaphors, its 
scenic representation, its pevsonm are to be taken, not as 
realities, but as imaginary things. Much less can one 
take certain portions of it — such as may suit his conven- 
ience and purpose — as real, and reject such other portions 
as he cannot well use, as unreal. No parable can be ex- 
plained in this way ; or rather, if one be allowed to ac- 
commodate a parable to his purpose in this way, he 
ought, by ingenious manipulation, to be able to prove 
anything he may please.* 

* " The parables may not he made first sources of doctrine. 
Doctrines, otherwise and already grounded, may be illustrated, 



Chap. XIV.] TEXTS AND ARGUMENTS. 



259 



2. The scene of this parable is altogether an ideal or 
suppositional one — and was meant to be so. It is sup- 
posed to be in the Hadean world, — a place, or state 
rather, concerning which the Scriptures have taught us 
absolutely nothing, excepting that it is one of darkness 
and silence where the "dead know nothing" into which 
all men, both good and bad go when they leave this 
world. If the scene had been laid in Gehenna that place 
of fire into which the wicked are cast, as the Scriptures 
inform us, after the resurrection and the judgment, to be 
consumed, this parable would have seemed to afford some 
justification for the doctrine that has been founded upon 
it. The word Gehenna is the only word that is rendered 
Hell in our revised . version ; the word Hades is trans- 
ferred to the text, without any change. If the authors 
of our old version had done the same, instead of un- 
fortunately translating both words " Hell," they would 
have saved a great deal of confusion of mind, and false 
reasoning from the parable, and in regard to the state of 
the dead generally. The two ideas represented by these 
two words, Hades and Gehenna, are as distinct as they 
can well be. The one is the place, or state, of the dead 
without reference to their character, between death and 
the resurrection to judgment. The other is the place 
into which the wicked are cast after judicial sentence 
has been pronounced upon them, to be destroyed soul 
and body together. The Jews, especially the Pharisees, 
to whom this parable was spoken, had adopted very gen- 

or indeed further confirmed by them, but it is not allowable to 
constitute doctrines first by their aid. . . . This rule, how- 
ever, has been often forgotten, and controversialists, looking 
around for arguments, with which to sustain some weak po- 
sition, one from which they can find no other support in Scrip- 
ture, often invent for themselves support in these.'' Teench, 
on the Parables. 



260 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



erally the fanciful and ghostly notions that prevailed 
among the heathen nations by which they were sur- 
rounded.^ And our Lord constructed this parable as He 
did His other parables, to suit their notions of things 
without any design of endorsing or opposing them. 
^■Then He uttered the parable of the shrewd, tricky 
steward who made " friends of the mammon of unriffht- 
eousness," whom his lord — not our Lord — commended 
for his shrewdness, that He might give a lesson, as to the 
proper use of money, we are not to understand Him as 
recommending this sort of sharp practice in our business 
dealings with each other; — nor by the parable of the 
" unjust judge," to whom He likens Himself in one point, 
are we to understand Him as approving of the character 
of this selfish, hard-hearted judge; nor by the parable of 
the "Great Supper" are we to understand Him as sanc- 
tioning the practice of giving great suppers, which in 
His day, if not in ours, were scenes of gluttony, drunk- 
enness and revelry. Our Lord took the people as they 
were, and used their language, and adapted His illustra- 
tions to their modes of thinking and living. They had a 
thousand false notions which He did not attempt to 
correct. When our Lord said to the self-righteous Phar- 
isees who murmured because of His compassion for 
sinners, that "there is more joy in heaven ove v one 
sinner that repenteth than over ninety and nine that 
need no repentance,'* we are not to understand Him as 
admitting their claim to His favor, or as affirming that 
there are any among the children of Adam who need no 

* " The Egyptians. Persians, Hindus and Greeks, with all of 
whom the Jews held relations of intercourse, had in their pop- 
ular representations of the under-world of the dead, regions of 
jeace and honor for the good, and regions of fire for the bad.*' 
W. It. Alger. " Paradise is separated from hell by a distance 
no greater than the width of a thread.'' Eisexmengetl. 



Chap. XIV.] TEXTS AND ARGUMENTS. 201 

repentance ; but simply as addressing them on the basis 
of their own assumptions. It is not to the drapery of 
His parables, nor to the elements of which they are com- 
posed, nor to the scene where they are laid, but to the 
truth He would illustrate, that we are to direct our 
attention. 

3. There is nothing in the circumstances or symbol- 
ism of this parable, that harmonizes with the repre- 
sentations given us everywhere else in the Scriptures 
concerning the Hadean state, or the rewards and punish- 
ments of the future world. So far as its pictorial con- 
ception is concerned, it stands alone and is quite unique. 
Nothing is said of the moral character of the two prin- 
cipal persons in this drama, — of the rich man, whom tra- 
dition, — not our Lord, — calls " Dives," because he was 
rich, and of Lazarus, a very common Hebrew name, 
meaning, without help, It is quite common to hear the 
former spoken of, as proud, sensual, miserly and every 
way corrupt ; and the latter, as humble, patient, prayer- 
ful and pure in heart. Indeed, it is not possible to 
adapt this parable to the purposes of those who would 
use it to represent the future misery of the wicked, and 
the future bliss of the righteous, unless the one is shown 
to be, or assumed to be, a very bad man, and the other a 
very good man. But they are obliged to draw entirely 
on the imagination for all this. They have done this, so 
uniformly and so long, that such representations seem 
to them, no doubt, as facts and part of the parable itself. 
Not a few of them will be astounded, if not offended, 
to be told that there is not one word or hint in what our 
Lord said to show that the poor man was one whit bet- 
ter than the rich man. He is represented as poor, beg- 
garly, and diseased, and all this might have been, — as is 
usually the case, — on account of his vices ; and that he 



262 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part II. 



was made any better by his suffering, there is no evi- 
dence whatever. The other is represented as rich, and 
supplied with everything to minister to his earthly hap- 
piness, and, for aught that appears to the contrary, as 
good as any other rich man. They are also represented 
as taking their bodies with them into Hades, and as re- 
taining full possession of all their physical organs and 
functions, and what is more, the rich man has five 
brethen still living upon the earth. Of course, this could 
not be after this world had passed away and the eternal 
state had commenced. Still further, Lazarus is in Abra- 
ham's bosom, not with Christ in heaven, where the 
righteous will be in the eternal world. Nor does it ac- 
cord with the representations of Scripture, that the 
saved and the lost should be within speaking distance of 
each other. In short, we have no reasonable ground to 
suppose that our Lord intended by this parable to teach 
anything concerning the rewards and punishments of the 
future state, much less to endorse the heathen notions of 
the intermediate state, which the Pharisees had adopted, 
or to give any sanction to the revolting doctrine of Pur- 
gatory, which the papal church lias founded on this one 
single passage. 

4. What then, did He mean to teach by this Parable ? 
This should be very evident in view of the circumstances 
under which it was spoken, and the persons to whom it 
was addressed ; and doubtless would be, were it not for 
the special efforts that have been made to make it teach 
something else. It was addressed to the proud, hypo- 
critical Pharisees, who claimed to be the children of the 
kingdom through their father Abraham, and heirs of the 
promise in preference — if not even to the exclusion — of 
all other people. Indeed, they looked upon the people 
of other nations with contempt, and regarded them as 



Chap. XIV.] TEXTS AND ARGUMENTS. 



263 



hardly worthy to eat of the crumbs that fell from their 
well supplied table. They had been signally favored 
of heaven. They might well be spoken of in this 
respect, as rich in all their high privileges, and clothed 
in purple and fine linen and faring sumptuously every 
day, in comparison with the poor Gentiles, who were fam- 
ishing for the bread of life. They supposed that these 
rich blessings were insured to them as the special favor- 
ites of heaven, and that this distinction between them- 
selves and others would always exist. Our Lord had 
been uttering parables in their hearing by which He 
rebuked their pride and self-conceit and hypocrisy. He 
'had set forth in strong colors the Divine displeasure 
toward them, for their abuse of their high privileges, and 
had showed them how vain were their hopes. He fore- 
warned them of their rejection in favor of these very 
people whom they so much despised : " Then shall ye 
begin to say, we have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, 
and Thou hast taught in our streets. But He shall say, I 
know you not whence ye are ; depart from Me all ye that 
work iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of 
teeth, when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob 
and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you 
yourselves thrust out. And they shall come from the 
East and from the West, and from the l^orth and from 
the South, and shall sit down in the kingdom oi* God ; 
and behold, there are last which shall be first, and there 
are first wmich shall be last." Having spoken to them 
the parable of the presumptuous guest, who had taken 
the highest seat at the feast, and was humbled by being 
made to take a lower place ; and of the Wedding Supper, 
and of the rejection of the guests first invited, because 
of their frivolous excuses, and of the invitation then 
given to the poor and the maimed and the halt and the 



204 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part XL 



blind to take their places ; and then, of the lost sheep, 
and of the prodigal son, to show His tender regard 
toward those whom they regarded as unworthy of being 
recovered to Himself, and of the covetous, dishonest 
steward — it is said that " The Pharisees also, who were 
covetous, heard all these things and derided Him" (14th 
verse). Then follows this Parable of prophecy, in the 
same line and with the same general purpose, to show 
them how completely their high position would be re- 
versed, in favor of those whom they now so much 
despised. 

No prophecy of Scripture has been more exactly ful- 
filled than this. They have died as a nation, and lost all 
their high privileges and possessions. The very land 
which they once possessed has been taken from them. 
They have no country on earth they can call their own. 
They are despised and deprived of their rights as citi- 
zens in other countries. They have been persecuted and 
oppressed, as no other people — not even the Africans — 
have been. The Gentiles, on the other hand, have taken 
possession of their country, and have entered into their 
high privileges, and have come to inherit, very largely, 
the promises made to the children of Abraham. They 
are this day, as it were, in Abraham's bosom, and in the 
enjoyment of ten thousand temporal and spiritual bless- 
ings. «There is, as it were, " a great gulf fixed " between 
the Jews and the Gentiles, — not a gulf of space, for they 
are also within speaking distance of them. But they are 
distinctly a separate people in whatever part of the world 
they go to reside. They do not intermarry or inter- 
mingle with them. This line of separation has been 
wonderfully and miraculously preserved for these eighteen 
hundred years. They are still obstinate in their unbe- 
lief. Missionary labors have been less successful among 



Chap. XIV.] TEXTS AND ARGUMENTS. 



265 



them hitherto, than among any other people. Indeed, it 
may well be said, " If they hear not Moses and the 
Prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one 
rose from the dead." For they still have Moses and the 
prophets ; and what is more, Jesus Christ, one of their 
own nation, and of whom Moses and the prophets testi- 
fied, has risen from the dead and they will not hear Him. 

But we need not draw out the parallel into other spe- 
cifications, though it might be done. Xo one should 
attempt to make a parable " go on all fours," as it is said, 
and extort special meanings from its details, after its 
general scope and bearing have been made manifest, as 
we think has been done in this case. The parallel be- 
tween the history of this Jewish people, and the picture 
drawn of it, in this prophetic parable, seems to us too 
complete and perfect in the above specifications, to admit 
of any other interpretation. 

How long this state of Jewish wretchedness and sepa- 
ration is to continue, the parable does not inform us. 
That it is an eternal one, the text furnishes us no evi- 
dence whatever to believe. This is one of the ideas that 
has been imported into it, by the spiritualistic theology 
which would make it descriptive of the eternal separa- 
tion of the righteous and the wicked in the future world. 
We are encouraged to believe, from numerous other 
prophecies, that " God will yet have mercy on Israel " ; 
and that when " the fulness of the Gentiles " shall have 
come in, He will restore them to favor and abundantly 
bless them. 

With the exception of one phrase, three times re- 
peated in the Apocalypse, which will claim our atten- 
tion in the following chapter, we know of no others, in 
the whole Bible beside these we have already exam- 
12 



266 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



ined — which have been thought to give any support to 
the doctrine of endless torment — The support given by 
those already examined we have found to be more appar- 
ent than real, and only apparent because the idea has 
been imported into them. One looks in vain through the 
book of the Acts of the Apostles, and through all their 
Epistles for the expression of any such idea, or for any 
passage that can be made to accommodate the idea if 
read into it. We have their discourses and letters to ail 
classes of people. They are filled with warnings and ex- 
hortations and the promises of the Gospel. They de- 
scribe the sad and perishing condition of those who are 
destitute of the Word of Life, and the high privileges of 
those to whom the Saviour has been revealed. They 
speak of His Second Advent, of the Resurrection and the 
Judgment, of the everlasting inheritance of the Saints, 
and of the utter destruction of the wicked ; but we find 
not one word or lisp of what is called "the immortal 
soul, the death that never dies," or of endless misery in 
hell. If such had been the truths they were commis- 
sioned to preach, they must have been sadly recreant to 
their high trust. After Paul's utter silence in regard to 
a doctrine which the so-called Christianity of after ages 
has considered so essential, how could he say, " I take 
you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of 
all men ; for I have not shunned to declare unto you, all 
the counsel of God"? No, no, this doctrine is no part of 
the counsel of God. It is the doctrine of the great ad- 
versary, who was a liar from the beginning, and who has 
ever sought to malign the character of God, to corrupt, 
misconstrue, pervert His truth, and to blind the minds of 
men "lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, 
who is the image of God, should shine unto them.' 5 For 
in no way could He more effectually accomplish His pur- 



Chap. XIV.] TEXTS AND ARGUMENTS. 



267 



pose, in promoting skepticism and infidelity, and bring 
discredit upon the Bible, and the God of the Bible, than 
by promulgating this monstrous error, and then charging 
it upon the Scriptures, and causing men to believe it is a 
part of their teaching.* 

* " The reason why infidels and skeptics of every grade have 
been only too willing to admit that the doctrine of man's natu- 
ral immortality, with the consequent doctrine of endless mis- 
ery, is taught in the Bible is obvious. In no way can they more 
effectually bring reproach upon the character of its author. 
Indeed, this is one of their strongest arguments against it. All 
the more plausible arguments, objections and reproaches which 
such blasphemers as Ingersoll, Bracllaugh, and others of less 
note, bring against Christianity and the God of Orthodox 
Christians, are based on the supposition that the Bible sanc- 
tions all the horrid cruelties and injustices that our traditional 
theology charges upon the Deity. Our traditional " orthodoxy " 
is mainly responsible for supplying them with these weapons of 
attack. And yet, strange to say, we find the orthodox uphold- 
ers of this doctrine, quoting the admission of these infidels and 
skeptics as so much evidence on their side. Dr. Bartlett, in 
his Life and Death Eternal, page 15, quotes this saying of The- 
odore Parker: ' I believe that Jesus Christ taught eternal tor- 
ment, — I do not accept it on his authority.' And again in the 
New Englander, Oct., 1871, he refers to the 'Parkers and the 
Paines ' as so much evidence on his side. So also the Congrega- 
iionalist, of Dec. 19, 1877, quotes this same utterance of Parker, 
and similar utterance of T. Starr King and Ernest Kenan, for 
the same purpose." 



CHAPTER XV. 



Texts and Arguments Commonly Used to Support 
the Traditional Dogma (Continued). 

VI. • 

Revelation 14: 11. " And the smoke of their tor- 
ment ascendeth up forever and ever (eis aionas aionon, to 
ages of ages) and they have no rest day nor night who 
io or ship (not who have worshiped, but who are worship- 
ers of) the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth 
the mark of his nameP 19: 3. "And again they said 
Alleluia; and her smoke rose up forever and ever" (eis 
tous aionas ton aionon, to the ages of the ages) . 

Rev. 20 : 9, 10. "And they (Gog and Magog with their 
hosts led on by Satan) went up on the breadth of the 
earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and 
the beloved city; and fire came down from God out of 
heaven and devoured them (that is devoured all except- 
ing Satan). And the devil that deceived them was cast 
into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and 
the false prophet are (or w^here they were cast one thou- 
sand years before, as we are told in chap. 19: 20) and 
shall be tormented day and night forever and ever " (eis 
tous aionas ton aionon, to the ages of the ages). 

The Apocalypse is extraordinary in its character, 
and certainly, the most difficult part of the Scriptures to 
interpret and understand ; but we see no good reason to 
question its canonicity, as some have done. It has prob- 
ably been subjected to more comment and speculation 
268 



Chap. XV.] TEXTS AND AEGUMENTS. 



269 



than any other book in the Bible. No two commentators 
have agreed in their explanation and application of its 
fanciful figures, its phantasmagorical images, its unnat- 
ural combinations of types and symbols and its fervid and 
extravagant language. We certainly do not profess to 
be wise enough to tell just what, and how much is meant 
by all that is shadowed forth in this prophetic vision ; 
nor is it necessary that we should know, in order to show 
that these passages cannot jDOSsibly have the ajDplication 
our opponents would fain give them, nor be made the 
foundation of any solid argument in behalf of their doc- 
trines ; and yet there are no passages, upon which they 
place more reliance or which they more often quote in 
support of it, than these in which this phrase aidnas 
aidnon occurs. It would be difficult for them to draw 
out even a plausible argument for their view without 
them. The author of " Life and Death Eternal" puts 
them foremost, and last, and midway, throughout his 
book, quoting and repeating them more than thirty times, 
like the refrain of a song, as though by their frequent re- 
petition, he could make up for the lack of other passages 
to supply his urgent need ; and yet all the seeming force 
they have is quite superficial, and comes from the sound 
of the words in the ears of those who have already as- 
sumed the point they wish to prove, and from the false 
association and application that are given them. 

1. It should be borne in mind, in attempting to de- 
cipher the meaning of any part of this book, that it is 
quite unique in its character. It is neither sober history, 
nor sober prophecy. It is neither didactic prose, nor 
poetry ; nor was it intended to be so taken ; but rather 
as a vision — as it really is — a dramatic representation of 
what John saw, while in a trance, in the isle of Patmos — 
a panoramic view of the leading events in the future his- 



270 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



tory of the world, in its relations to the kingdom of 
Christ, to the end of time, or rather to the end of the 
age or cycle through which it is now passing ; and espe- 
cially of the last great struggle between Christ and His 
enemies, and the final victory He gains over them. We 
contend that its kaleidoscopic imagery of word painting 
and hieroglyphics, is not to be taken in the same way, as 
we are to take the sober, plain, didactic utterance of the 
Gospels and the Epistles. It is no place to look for theo- 
logical dogmas, or for texts in support of them. We 
certainly must protest against the practice, so common 
with advocates of this dogma we are opposing, of taking 
its images partly in a figurative, and partly in literal 
sense, just because it best suits their purpose to do so ; 
and of picking out here and there, from the midst of a 
dramatic scene, such words and phrases as can be made 
to fit into their dogma, and calling them "proof texts," 
while their connection is quite disregarded, and all modi- 
fying circumstances are ignored. 

2. All the argumentative force there is in these three 
passages, lies in the Greek phrase thrice repeated, aidnas 
aidndn, rendered in our common Version " forever and 
ever," but in the Revised Version with the alternative 
reading " ages of ages." It would have no force here, if 
the words were not wrested from their temporal and 
mundane application, which they evidently have in the 
connection where they are found, and predicated of the 
future world, to which they have no reference. 

The word aidn, — from which our English word eon or 
aeon is derived, signifying age, a life time, a generation, 
a cycle, an indefinite period of time, duration, whether 
limited or unlimited, and therefore sometimes endless 
duration — with its inflections and in various combina- 
tions, occurs nearly one hundred times in the New Tes- 



Chap. XV.] 



TEXTS AND ARGUMENTS. 



271 



t anient, and is variously rendered according to its con- 
nection. Hence it is translated, " ages," " ages to come," 
"before the world was," " since the world began," "from 
the beginning of the world," " while the world standeth," 
"the course of this world," "forever," " foreverniore," 
etc. The same is true of the adjective aidnios, and its 
Hebrew analogue, olam. Though they are more com- 
monly rendered " everlasting," " eternal," etc., their ap- 
plication is evidently quite as often to temporal and tran- 
sitory affairs, as to those that are absolutely endless ; and 
like the English words that represent them, their true 
signification in any text, must be determined, not by the 
words themselves, but by the objects of which they are 
predicated, and the circumstances of the case. 

When this phrase is predicated of things naturally 
and necessarily temporal and temporary, like the priest- 
hood of Aaron, the service of the temple, an earthly in- 
heritance, the leprosy of Gehazi, the life servitude of the 
bondman, as it is in the Scriptures, or when the everlast- 
ing hills, and mountains, and doors, and chains, and fire, 
and punishment are spoken of, it is evidently limited by 
the nature of the subject, and by the common sense of 
those addressed, and there is no need of misunderstand- 
ing its application. We use the terms everlasting, for- 
ever, etc., in the transfer of property, and in other busi- 
ness transactions, and in the affairs of every day life in 
the same limited sense. 

When this phrase is predicated of that which, in its 
own nature, is incorruptible, and which has been declared 
in other ways and by other forms of speech to be abso- 
lutely endless, like the life of God, who is elsewhere de- 
clared to be immortal, or that of His people, to whom He 
gives His own life, and which the Scriptures assure us 
" shall never be taken away from them," we have no oc- 



272 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



casion, either in reason, or in the nature of things to 
limit the phrase. It takes all the force of which it is 
capable. 

But when the term is applied to that which might be 
supposed to be endless without doing violence to reason, 
or to that concerning which, we have no other evidence 
but such as we find in the term itself, all we can do is to 
give to it the very indefiniteness which is its peculiar 
characteristic. 

3. Now in the several passages under consideration 
we think it will be evident to every unbiased mind that 
this phrase aionas aionon was intended to be taken in a 
sense, more or less restricted — and indeed must be so 
understood, if we would correctly interpret them ; for 
(1.) It is predicated, not of individuals as such, but of 
impersonal or rather of personified organizations and 
associations of individuals. Such organizations must be 
punished, if punished at all, during their continuance in 
time, for they cannot, or at any rate the Scriptures teach 
us, they will not exist as such, in the world beyond. 
The intelligent reader will observe, that we have in this 
book a vision of three great systems of evil that with- 
stand the progress of the Gospel. They are described 
or personified as (a) Mystical Babylon, otherwise called 
the Beast, the great Whore, and by a variety of other 
names. This is generally understood, by Protestants, to 
represent the Papal power, (h) The False Prophet, by 
which the Mohammedan power is supposed to be meant, 
and (c) The Dragon, which is thought to stand for the 
Pagan world which is most evidently under the control 
of Satan, and sometimes this title is employed to desig- 
nate the Devil individually, or rather collectively, with 
all his angels, under the various titles of Satan, the 
Dragon, the Old Serpent, etc. For, as in a kaleidoscope, 



Chap. XV.] 



TEXTS AXD ARGUMENTS. 



273 



the figure assumes so many shapes it is not always possi- 
ble to identity and define it with precision ; nor shall we 
attempt to do so. These three opposing forces must be 
subdued and destroyed, before the Gospel can fully tri- 
umph in the earth, The book is largely occupied with 
detailed descriptions of these powers of evil, and of their 
conflicts with the people of God, and with Christ their 
great Captain. In the passages under consideration, we 
have foretold the final issue of these conflicts in their com- 
plete overthrow, punishment and destruction. It is true 
the worshipers of the Beast are spoken of as individuals, 
in some of these description?, as indeed they must be, in 
order to an understanding of what is meant by them. 
But it is more generally in their collective capacity, and 
under one personal designation. Even when they are 
spoken of as individuals, it will be noticed, that the 
phraseology is peculiar. They are not said to be tor- 
mented for having worshiped the Beast, but while wor- 
shiping the Beast. They have no rest day nor night 
{proskunountes to theriori) worshiping the Beast, or 
while continuing to worship him. But further on it is 
said (19 : 3) : "And Her smoke rose up to the ages of 
the ages," i. e., the smoke of Babylon, or the Beast, or 
the great Whore, this great conspicuous organic system 
of evil. That it is the smoke of her utter destruction, as 
well as of her torment, we are assured by the words of 
the angel, who " took up a stone like a great millstone 
and cast it into the sea saying: c Thus, with violence 
shall that great city Babylon be thrown down and shall 

BE NO MORE FOUND AT ALL ' " (18: 21). 

(2.) The imagery here employed seems to be quoted 
from the prophecy of Isaiah, where the destruction of 
Idumea is set forth in the following words : " And the 
streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust 
12* 



274 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT, [Part II. 



thereof, into brimstone, and the land thereof shall be- 
come burning pitch ; and it shall not he quenched night 
nor day, and the smoke thereof shall go up foeever : 
from generation to generation it shall lie waste and none 
shall pass through it forever and ever (Is. 84: 9, 10). 
The language here is as strong as it possibly can be, 
stronger if possible, than the corresponding phraseology, 
in its application to the destruction of Babylon. The 
Hebrew words are lanetsach netsachim, " perpetuity of 
perpetuities," and yet no one thinks of giving it any 
other application, but that which is limited to this world. 
Indeed, the prophecy, in its spirit and real import, has long 
since been fulfilled, and the fires have gone out, and the 
smoke has* ceased to ascend in any literal sense. Xor is 
there any good reason for giving to the highly wrought 
prophetic language of the Apocalypse, in which the same 
figure is used, any other application, but the necessity of 
finding something in the Scriptures to justify this doc- 
trine of the endless torment of the wicked in a future 
state of being. Dr. Ives well remarks on this passage : 

"ISTo traveler finds, in the present condition of An- 
cient Idumea, the literal fulfilment of Isaiah's poetic pre- 
diction. Desolate indeed is the land ; totally ruined are 
the cities ; but they are not now sending up the smoke of 
their burning. And yet the poet-seer is no false prophet. 
That doom, which, in the highly wrought language of 
poetry, he foretold, has overtaken those cities. We be- 
hold in it a destruction which is not only total, but ever 
continuing, and so, fitly syniboli-zed by the ever-ascending 
smoke of their burning. " # 

* " We are led to conclude that the ' everlasting fire ' is not 
a fire of everlasting torment, but one of inevitable destruction, 
and this accords with the fact, patent on the face of the Scrip- 
tures, that every passage which alludes to future punishment, 
carries with it in some form, the idea of destruction. The very 
alternative of the Gospel is 'perish' or 'have everlasting 



Chap. XV.] 



TEXTS AXD ARGUMENTS. 



275 



The same may be said of the destruction of " Sodom 
and Gomorrah and the cities about them," of which 
Jude says : they " are set forth for an example, suffering 
the vengeance of eternal fire." The fire made quick 
work with them, and the waters of the Dead Sea now 
roll over the plain where they stood. And yet the ex- 
ample of their destruction still lives, and ever will live, 
in the memory of the righteous as if the smoke of their 
burning ascended up forever and ever. 

(3.) That this phrase is to be taken in its limited 
sense in these three passages, is further evident from the 
fact, that it is predicated — not of transactions in the 
world beyond, but of those that have their course and full 
consummation in time, and long before the end of the 
world. It should 'be observed, that the destruction of 
the Beast and the False Prophet occurs before the Sec- 
ond Advent, and the Millennial reign of Christ with His 
saints on the earth ; and that of the Dragon, though de- 
layed till after the thousand years are accomplished, is 
anterior to the general resurrection and the final judg- 
ment, and the punishment of the wicked with everlasting 
destruction, " which is the second death." 

life.' One passage, indeed, seems to be an exception to this 
uniform, teaching. In Rev. 14: 10, 11, it is stated that a certain 
class of sinners shall suffer a special torment, the smoke of 
which ascendeth up unto the ages of the ages. Upon this pas- 
sage the doctrine of an endless torment in hell mainly rests. 
But not to speak of the inconsistency of this revolting con- 
ception of God with St. John's definition of Him as Love, we 
submit that one or two such passages in the most obscure book 
of the Bible cannot set aside the multitude of plainer passages 
which represent the punishment of the wicked as ' destruc- 
tion.' ... In a parallel passage in Isaiah 34, we read that the 
smoke of the fiery judgment which the Lord should send upon 
Idumea ' shall go up forever.' And yet the promise, through 
the same prophet, is that the whole earth shall be renewed." 
Mystery of Creation, p. 178. L. C. Bakee. 



276 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



It is not necessary for us hero to consider minutely 
these conflicts, which are described with such graphic 
detail in this vision. It is the issue only that now con- 
cerns us. The Beast and the False Prophet seem to be 
intimately associated in their opposition to " the Ever- 
lasting Gospel." Their origin, their life, and their de- 
struction seem to be coeval, cotemporary and coterminous. 
Their common doom is thus described : 

" Another Beast was taken and with him the False 
Prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which 
he deceived them that had received the mark of the 
Beast and them that worshijDed his image. These both 
were cast alive into a lake burning with fire and brim- 
stone. And the Remnant [notice here, the distinction 
between the personified systems or organizations, and 
the individuals connected with them] are slain with the 
sword of Him that sat upon the horse, which sword pro- 
ceeded out of His mouth, and all the fowls were filled 
with their flesh " (19 : 20, 21). 

But there yet remains another obstacle to be removed 
before the universal reign of Christ with His saints on 
the earth can begin : " The Dragon, that Old Serpent, 
which is the Devil and Satan " must be taken out of the 
way. But the time for his utter destruction has not yet 
come. He is only to be bound during these thousand 
years, and then, in like manner to be destroyed. 

" And I [John] saw an angel come down from heaven, 
having the key of the bottomless pit (tes abussou, the 
abyss) and a great chain in his hand, and he laid hold on 
the Dragon, that old Serpent, the Devil and Satan, and 
bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bot- 
tomless pit (the abyss), and shut him up, and set a seal 
upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more till 
the thousand years should be fulfilled ; and after that he 
must be loosed a little season" (20 : 1-3). 

Then comes the First Resurrection (e anastasis e prote, 
whatever may be understood by this phrase), which is 



Chap. XV.] 



TEXTS AND ARGUMENTS. 



277 



followed by the happy reign of Christ with the martyred 
saints during the long millennial age. This we need not 
now stop to consider. At the end of this period, Satan 
is loosed for a little season. There is a general outburst 
of wickedness. Gog and Magog, under his leadership are 
gathered together, in numbers as the sand of the sea. 
They compass the camp of the saints and the beloved 
city. Fire comes down from God out of heaven and de- 
vours them, i. e.— the rank and file of these armies ; but 
their diabolical leader is reserved for a more fearful de- 
struction. Like the Beast and the False Prophet, he too 
is now taken and cast into the same lake of fire and brim- 
stone where they were cast a thousand years before to be 
tormented to the consummation of the ages. Although 
it would appear from the language of Scripture, that 
there is such an actual personage as the Devil, alias Satan, 
alias that Old Serpent, alias the Dragon, we are not to 
suppose that he is ubiquitous as an individual. These ap- 
pellations are more often used as a general term, to des- 
ignate the associated hosts of evil that are actuated by 
one common evil purpose. In which of these senses we 
are to understand this description of his destruction in 
company with the Beast and the False Prophet, may be 
open to question. In view of the symbolical character of 
the whole vision, and the evident and symbolical char- 
acter of the other two personages, there would be a mani- 
fest incongruity, to say the least, in giving a literal inter- 
pretation to the third. We therefore think that we 
should understand all three of them as symbolical per- 
sonages or personifications. But we are not anxious to 
press this point, any further than to insist that they are 
not human beings, whatever else they may be taken to 
be, and that their doom cannot be understood as the doom 
of mortal men. Indeed the resurrection, the general 



278 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



judgment, and the condemnation of the wicked of the 
human race to destruction in the Second death are after 
this, still in the future, and are made the subject of the 
remaining verses of this chapter. But after how long an 
interval, we have no means of knowing. 

It is possible, yea probable, that a long period, — how 
long we will not conjecture, — may intervene between the 
events now described, and the last scene in this earthly 
drama. A vision of only the tops of the distant moun- 
tains is given to the seer — while the peaceful valleys that 
lie between are hidden from view. Barnes says in his 
notes on this chapter : 

" How long the interval will be between this state — 
[the state of peace and prosperity after the destruction 
of Satan, as described in the tenth verse] and the next 
disclosed (in verses 11-15) — the final judgment, — is not 
stated. The eye of the seer glances from one to the 
other, but there is nothing to forbid the supposition, that, 
according to the laws of prophetic vision, there may be a 
long interval in which the righteous shall reign upon the 
earth." 

Professor Stuart expresses the same view, and says in 
reference to this period : 

" Peaceful and triumphant will be her latest age. The 
number of the redeemed will be augmented beyond all 
computation, and the promise made from the beginning, 
that 6 the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's 
head,' will be fulfilled in all its extent and with a Divine 
plenitude of meaning." 

But in the consummation of the ages of the ages, the 
end is reached, and the prophet sees the last closing act 
in this earthly drama. The Judge appears seated on His 
great white throne. The heavens and the earth flee 
away from before His face, and there is no place left for 
them. The books are opened, the dead are raised and 
judged, every one according to his works ; and all whose 



Chap. XV.] 



TEXTS AST) AKGUMEXTS, 



279 



names are not written in the Booh of Life are cast into 
the lake of fire — then last of all, Death and Hades are 
cast into the same lake of fire. This is the Second 
Death.* 

The glorious vision of the new heavens and the new 
earth that now follows, will be considered in the closing 
chapter. It would seem to be impossible in any form of 
words, whether in literal or figurative language, to de- 
scribe or affirm more positively the complete and final 
destruction and extermination of all evil — of all systems 
of evil, and of all evil agencies and things, than is fore- 
told in this book of Revelation. Why, not merely the 
Beast and the False Prophet and Satan, alias the Devil, 
alias the Old Serpent, alias the Dragon, and all his ser- 
vants, and all his works are destroyed, but death itself, 
which is the great work of this (anthrdpoJctonos) man- 
killer, and Hades, the very prison-house in which they 
have been confined — for there is now no longer any use 
for it — are all together cast into this burning lake to be 
utterly consumed, and this old earth, which has been the 
theater of the fall of man, and of his redemption, and of 
the long struggle between good and evil, and of the vic- 
tory, too, of the Son of God, now passes away, and gives 

*"If it be asked what the lake of fire does represent, we 
would reply— the partial overcoming of evil and destruction of 
evil-doers at the beginning of the millennium, and their com- 
plete overthrow at the close of it. Fire is the most irresistible 
agent of destruction that we can know; and it is used here 
to give us the most vivid idea that could be presented to our 
minds, of the complete destruction of what is represented by 
the persons and things cast into it. The Devil probably repre- 
sents all the evil connected with the unseen world; the Beast 
and the False Prophet the most conspicuous typical develop- 
ments of human wickedness; death and Hades the physical 
evils introduced by sin. Ail will come to an end; every trace 
of sin and its results will be swept away forever/' S. Iuinton. 



280 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



place to the new heavens and the new earth in which 
neither sin, nor sorrow, nor death shall ever be known, 
" for the former things have passed away." This is the 
consummation for which Peter also bids ns look : 

" Beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one 
day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand 
years as one day — But the day of the Lord will come in 
which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, 
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the 
earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned 
up. Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look for 
new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteous- 
ness." (2 Pet. 3.) 

3. We need ha^e.no difficulty in understanding the 
general truth taught by this book. That it was given to 
comfort and encourage the hearts of the people of God, 
through the many trials that would come upon them, dur- 
ing this long struggle, and to assure them of the glorious 
issue of all these conflicts in the complete triumph of 
Christ and His followers, and the final destruction of all 
evil, is quite evident. No doubt it was given in the form 
best adapted to all the purposes for which it was intended. 
It was not designed to be a didactic or doctrinal treatise, 
like the Epistles, nor like the practical discourses of our 
Lord. It was not intended that we should reduce its 
language to logical proportions, nor define with precision 
its dramatic imagery, and bring all the details of this 
panorama into place, as we would bring the events of a 
sober history — certainly not, while in the midst of the 
scenes it is describing to us. No man but a fool is wise 
enough to do this. Nor will any sane man — unless he has 
a theory to support, and then it is impossible to say what 
he will not do — think of analyzing all these grotesque 
images, and criticising their anatomy* the garb in which 
they are clothed, and the implements they use. No sober 



Chap. XV.] TEXTS AND ARGUMENTS. 



281 



man will undertake to prove from the language here em- 
ployed, that our Lord actually rides on a white horse, 
with a sharp sword in His mouth, nor that an angel 
actually stands in the sun, and throws a great stone into 
the sea, nor that there is somewhere a bottomless pit, 
fitted with a lock and key, and that a mighty angel will 
bring the key in one hand, with which to open the door, 
and a chain in the other, with which to bind an actual 
dragon, that he may cast him into it and lock him up for 
a thousand years, nor that there is a veritable lake of fire 
and brimstone, where myriads of millions of human 
beings are writhing in torture, without being consumed, 
in the presence of the Lamb and His holy angels and His 
redeemed saints, while the smoke of their torment will 
literally roll up forever and ever — that is throughout the 
unending future of the world beyond. And yet, strange 
to say, we find pious and otherwise rational men, so 
blinded by this heathenish dogma, and so pressed for ar- 
guments to support it, eagerly catching up such figures 
and phrases of this vision as will suit their purpose, and 
parading them as so many proof texts of the doctrine of 
endless sin and torment. They freely allow the unreal 
character of so many of these images and phantasms, as 
are not applicable to their purpose ; but they hesitate not 
to pick out the " fire " and the " brimstone," and the 
"smoke," and the "torment," and the words "forever 
and ever," which they insist on using in the infinite sense 
of endlessness, from the mass of other symbols and ap- 
plying them to — What ? not to the personifications of 
evil, of which they are predicated, but to living men, 
women and children like themselves ! ! But what is more 
astonishing — while they insist that all other texts occur- 
ring in the didactic, doctrinal and legal parts of God's 
Word that speak of " Life Eternal," and " Death," and 



282 



THE UXSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



" Destruction," and " Perdition," etc., should be taken as 
metaphors and in no literal sense ; — now when they come 
to that portion of His Word that is altogether metaphori- 
cal, they insist on giving to such fragmentary parts of it, 
as will suit their dogma, a strictly literal sense! 7 And 
still further, they are not content with giving them a full 
and literal application to the things of time and sense, to 
which they belong — for they are evidently used with ref- 
erence to events transpiring on this earth previous to the 
consummation of the ages, — but they must wrest them 
from their terrestrial and temporal connection, and carry 
them over into the spiritual world, where the Scriptures 
tell us there are no such material agencies, no succession 
of day and night, no more pain, no more death, in order 
to prove that there is pain there, and death, and a lake of 
fire and brimstone there, and that mortal men are writhing 
there, and will writhe in unutterable hopeless agony, hav- 
ing no rest day nor night, while the smoke of their tor- 
ments ascends up in the face of heaven forever and ever ! 

We verily believe that a more grievous perversion of 
God's Word, a more complete reversal of its decided tes- 
timony from beginning to end, could not well be per- 
petrated. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



The Exodus of Sin and Death. 

The Divine Revelation is dualistic in substance as well 
as in form. By means of two so-called Testaments — the 
Old and the New — we have revealed to us two worlds, 
two Adams, two progenitors, two births, two covenants, 
two classes of men, two kingdoms, two Divine Advents, 
two lives, two deaths. 

This Revelation makes known to us first the one, and 
then the other in this series of couplets, that we may- 
compare them, and see how much superior the second is 
to the first, how much more substantial and enduring. 

We have already alluded, more than once, to these 
contrasts, in the foregoing pages ; but in this closing 
chapter, we must bring them together in a cluster, that 
their relation to each other, and their bearing on the 
question under discussion may be more clearly seen. 
This is rendered the more necessary by the fact, that the 
traditional doctrine of only one actual life, — an immortal 
life for all men — has made void some of these distinc- 
tions so sharply drawn in the Scriptures, and greatly 
obscured all the others, which would otherwise be 
apparent. 

1. Firsts the creation of this lower world is graphi- 
cally though briefly described. All is very good, yea, 
perfect according to its nature ; but it is in its nature 
material ; all its appointments are material, and under 
the reign of natural law, and therefore mutable and tran- 
sitory. — Afterward^ is revealed to us a brighter, better, 

283 



284 



THE rXSPE ARABLE GTTT. 



□Part EL 



more substantial and a more glorious world beyond, as 
yet, invisible, spiritual in its nature, under the law of 
holy love, and fitted, in its very nature, to endure for- 
ever. " For the things which are seen are temporal, but 
the things which are not seen are eternal. w The exist- 
ence and nature of this world to come are but gradually 
suggested to us ; and it is only in the Xew Testament, 
and more especially, in its closing chapters, that its ex- 
cellency and glory, as the Second Paradise, of which the 
First in Eden was but a faint type, are more fully and 
clearly revealed. 

2. Xext we have a record of the creation of the First 
Man " out of the dust of the ground ? ' ; the noblest of 
all earthly creatures, and yet, essentially earthly, as he 
proved himself to be, and as the name, u adamy' which 
was given to him by his Creator, imports. 44 He became 
a living soul," or creature, like the animals beneath him; 
but with this essential difference : There was given to 
him a capacity for a higher life — the life of the spiritual 
world beyond, and he was intended for this by his Crea- 
tor ; but onlv by hein^ established in holiness, without 
which he could neither possess nor enjoy it. Failing in 
this essential condition through sin, he proved himself 
unworthy of the boon, and sank at once, to the condition 
of an earthly and perishable creature. * That was not 
first which was spiritual, but that which was natural, and 
afterward that which was spiritual,'' as is shown in the 
sequel. — Xow the way is prepared for the revelation of a 
Second Adam ; born of a woman, yet begotten by God ; 
the Son of Man, the Son of God ; both Divine and 
Iranian ; the true link between tins lower world, and that 
world of light, of which He is Lord of all; "Tempted 
in all points like as we are, yet without sin " ; dying as a 
mortal, for the redemption of man, though possessed of 



Chap, XVI.] THE EXODUS OF SIX xVXD DEATH. 



285 



an inherent immortality in His own right, which could 
not be lost, and so, " being made perfect through suffer- 
ing, He becomes the Author of eternal salvation unto all 
them that obey Him " ; and " to as many as receive Him, 
He gives power to become the Sons of God, even to 
them that believe on His name." 

3. The First Adam is the j>rogenitor of a race like 
himself, earthly, camal, sinful and mortal. His children 
could not inherit from him an immortality which he failed 
to secure for himself. — The Second Adam is the progeni- 
tor of a race, who are like Him, pure in heart, and spir- 
itual in their natures, and who inherit from Him, His 
own immortal life. Though Lingering here for a while, * 
and subject to physical death, they shall in due time, 
enter upon that " inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, 
and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for them, 
who are kept by the power of God through faith unto 
salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time." 

4. There must be two births as well as two begettings. 
No child of Adam can inherit Eternal Life, except he be 
born again — or rather from above (andthen). "That 
which is born (it should be rendered begotten, from gen- 
nab, to beget ) of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born 
(begotten) of the Spirit is spirit." We inherit from 
Adam, in our first birth nothing but a natural, mortal, 
transitory life — the life of the psuche, which is common 
to all earthly creatures. We inherit from the Second 
Adam, in our second birth from above, a supernatural, 
spiritual, deathless life, — a life ingenerated within us by 
the (Pneuma) Spirit. This is the life which is so uni- 
formly and repeatedly spoken of by our Lord as, " The 
Life Everlasting " (e zoe aionios) — a life which is di- 
rectly from Him, and which only can " make us meet to 
be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." 



286 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part II. 



5. This dispensation of grace brings us under a new 
covenant. The First covenant was a covenant of works. 
" Do this and thou shalt live." It was entirely legal. 
Its rewards and penalties, its motives, though pure, were 
earthly, and appealed to man's psuchical nature. " It 
could never make the comers thereto perfect n — that 
is complete. u For if the first had been faultless, then 
should no place have been found for the second." — But 
the second covenant is a covenant of faith, 14 Believe and 
thou shalt be saved." It requires an implicit trust in an 
Almighty Saviour — one " who is made not after the law 
of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an 
endless life." Its appeals are to that higher nature, now 
begotten within the new man by the Spirit of God. 
Its motives, its rewards are spiritual, heavenly, eternal. 

6. And so mankind come to be divided into two 
classes, and only two ; " sinners " and " saints," though 
designated by a great variety of other names in the 
Scriptures, as we have shown in a previous chapter. 

The first class are carnally minded ; live after the 
flesh ; are controlled by worldly motives ; seek for 
worldly gain, and have all their good things, which perish 
with their use in this life ; and when this world is de- 
stroyed, they must perish with it, and with their treas- 
ures, for they have no inheritance beyond. — The second 
class are spiritually minded ; are led by the Spirit of 
God; through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the 
flesh ; are controlled by spiritual influences ; seek those 
things that are above, that are pure, substantial and 
eternal. Their choice is the good part that shall never 
be taken away. They and they only have eternal life. 

7. Hence there are two kingdoms ; the one of this 
world, over which the great enemy of God and man bears 
rule, as prince of this world, a kingdom of evil, of dis- 



Chap. XVI.] THE EXODUS OF SIN AND DEATH. 



287 



order, of sorrow, of darkness and of death ; a kingdom 
that is doomed to be overthrown and utterly and forever 
destroyed. — — -The other is the kingdom of God, of 
heaven, of our Lord ; a kingdom of light and glory and 
power ; a kingdom of righteousness and peace and joy in 
the Holy Ghost, which, established by the Son of God, 
as His Everlasting Kingdom, shall endure forever. 

8. To lay the foundations of this kingdom, the Son 
of God came in the flesh, as the Son of Man, to live 
under the law, to suffer and die ; and then, victorious 
over the power of death, He rose and ascended on high, 
" leading captivity captive, and giving gifts to men." — 
We have the assurance that He will come again in due 
time, to gather in the fruits of His victory, to raise the 
dead, to judge the world, and then, to destroy it, or all 
that is destructible and vile in it, and to make all things 
new. "And unto them that look for Him, shall He appear 
the second time without sin (or apart from sin) unto sal- 
vation." And in that new heavens and new earth 
wherein dwelleth righteousness, He shall reign over His 
ransomed people forever. To achieve this is the work 
of two Advents or epiphanies or comings ; the First and 
the Second which are the theme of many of the Proph- 
ecies and Epistles. 

9. Finally — not to extend this category into other 
points that are less clearly revealed — we ask especial at- 
tention to the First and Second Death, to which such 
prominence is given in the Word of God. 

There is no vagueness in the teaching of Scripture 
with respect to these two deaths ; and there ought to be 
no misunderstanding of its doctrine nor would there be, 
were it not for the philosophy that denies the actuality of 
even the first death, because man is assumed to be an 
immortal being / of course, there is no place for a second 
death. 



288 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GEPT. 



[Part II. 



This fundamental error throws a cloud of confusion 
over the whole system of Divine Revelation. The radi- 
cal distinction between the natural and the supernatural, 
between that which is physical, earthly and transitory, 
and that which is spiritual, heavenly and eternal, which 
is so sharply drawn in the Scriptures is quite ignored. 
By a scheme of mystical, scholastic interpretation of the 
pivotal words of Scripture, and of its doctrines, the 
whole is brought under a system of naturalism ; the 
higher is made to follow that which is lower, step by 
step, under a self-contained principle of natural develop- 
ment. Man, if indeed he had any definite beginning, 
had no such beginning as Moses tells of, or rather as 
somebody tells us in the book of Genesis. He has been 
rising or developing through a long succession of ages 
from one stage to another, and still has before him a 
career of progress, that is absolutely interminable. Ac- 
cording to this philosophy there cannot be any such 
thing under the Divine government, as the penalty of 
actual death. Death, instead of being a penal infliction, 
is the door by which the righteous enter upon that higher 
state of existence for which they have been maturing 
here below. For the wicked also — it is the door by 
which they enter upon a state of eternal sin and misery. 
And then, as to the Second death, which, according to 
the Word of God, follows upon the Resurrection and the 
Judgment to condemnation, it means — why it means — a 
— just nothing at all, only more sin and misery. These 
theological teachers have had a world of trouble in defin- 
ing the First death, so as to save their dogma, and not to 
seem to contradict the Scriptures ; but they are com- 
pletely baffled in their attempts to explain the meaning of 
the " Second death." This will be evident to any one 
who will take the trouble to examine any of their com 



Chap. XVI. J THE EXODUS OF SIX AND DEATH. 



289 



mentaries on this point. Barnes makes the fears, the 
pains, the agonies that attend upon natural death, to il- 
lustrate the fears and pains and agonies of the sinner in 
the Second death. All this, no doubt, is very true. But 
he forgets that, in the first ease, they all find their end 
in death itself, while in the other, he supposes them to 
continue forever. In this way he overlooks the main 
point in the comparison, and takes the circumstances at- 
tending the two events for the events themselves. For 
whatever be the accompaniments of this death — and 
they must indeed be fearful, in the case of those who 
have persisted all their lives in the rejection of an offered 
salvation — it is of the death itself, the final end of the 
sinner's career, of which the Scriptures so emphatically 
speak, and to which we would invite especial attention. 
" Sin," whatever miseries may attend its course, " when 
it is Finished bringeth forth Death." * 

Of course if there be no actual death in the first in- 
stance, there can be no actual resurrection from the dead. 
All those awe inspiring descriptions which we find in the 
T\ r ord of God, of the second coming of the Son of Man, 

* Since writing the above paragraph I have listened to an im- 
pressive sermon from an orthodox minister, on the text. "He 
that converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a 
soul from death," etc. He gave a formal definition of Death 
thus: i: Death is severance from God" Severance from God will 
surely result in death. But it is not death itself. It is no more 
death than abstinence from food is death, or the severance of 
a branch from the vine is death. Why should our religious 
teachers constantly put the cause for the effect, when speaking 
of the death of the sinner? It is that they may substitute 
another effect in the place of death — and so permit the sinner 
to live after he is dead. — Ask them what severance from God 
is. and they will not say " death," but "a state of sin and 
misery." What then, is the second death? Why, more sever- 
ance from God. or more sin and misery! ! 
13 



290 THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part II. 

in great power and glory, with all His holy angels, when 
the graves are to be opened, and the dead are to come 
forth from their graves, and all men, both small and 
great are to stand before His judgment throne, are to be 
taken as Oriental hyperboles, and as really meaning noth- 
ing more than the gentle emergence of the spirit from the 
body where it has been imprisoned, like the balloon when 
the tie is cut that holds it to the earth, and it rises to its 
proper place in the sphere above. Indeed, as for all who 
have gone before us, we are to believe, according to the 
teaching of Hymeneus and Philetus, " who erred con- 
cerning the faith," as Paul tells us, " and overthrew the 
faith of some," " that the resurrection is past already," so 
far as that kind of rising can be called a resurrection.* 
So also, there is to be no actual personal second cora- 

*" While the reformers rooted out the mediaeval doctrine of 
Purgatory, they failed to substitute a better theory of the 
middle state, and left it for our days to reconsider this whole 
question and to reach positive results. The Protestant creeds 
almost wholly ignore the middle state, aud pass from death 
immediately to the final state after the general judgment, and 
the old Protestant theologians nearly identify the pre-resurrec- 
tion state of the righteous and wicked with their post-resur- 
rection state, except that the former is a disembodied state of 
perfect bliss or perfect misery. By this confusion the Resur- 
rection and the general Judgment are reduced to an empty 
formality." Am. Pres. Review, Oct. 1883. Dr. Schaff. 

"Any careful reader of the New Testament and of the 
sermons and letters of the apostles must see at once that no- 
where does our modern preaching differ from theirs so widely 
as at this vital point. To them this was the grand fruit of the 
Redeemer's toil, the sublime hope of the Church, the great de- 
liverance of the human race, for which even the whole creation 
was in travail. There is not a recorded sermon or Epistle of 
the apostles which does not at least allude to it, and in most of 
them it flames out into a great light, which from their high 



Chap. XVI.] THE EXODUS OF SIN AND DEATH. 



291 



ing of our victorious Lord to take the government of a 
ransomed world, and to rule in righteousness over his 
loyal, holy people. The language of Scripture, in which 
this is so clearly and positively foretold, is to be taken in 
a metaphorical sense, to indicate a kind of invisible, im- 
personal parousia, long since passed; and that great 
event, for which the early Christians waited and prayed 
with longing desire, and for which, so many of His people 
are still praying and waiting and watching with joyful 
expectancy " and so much the more as they see the day 
approaching,' 5 is all a delusive dream ! Indeed, there is 
to be no such complete victory; no such universal king- 
dom as we have been taught to pray for, but only a par- 
tial victory, in which the great Adversary of God and 
Man shall be permitted to retain possession of all the cap- 
tives he has hitherto taken, and all he shall yet take to 
the end of the world, and then, one province, at least, is 
to be given over to their eternal occupancy, and there 
are to be two Everlasting Kingdoms, a kingdom of light 
and a kingdom of darkness ; a kingdom of holiness and 
a kingdom of sin; a kingdom of joy and blessedness; 
and a kingdom of wailing and woe, running parallel with 
each other to all eternity. In short, all the great doc- 
trines of our holy religion must be explained away, or 
modified or spiritualized to accommodate this ruling 
dogma. It has so enthroned itself in the so-called u or- 

tower of hope, they fling out into the world's darkness. We 
hear, indeed, the fact of a risen Christ now and then feebly 
preached, but how ? seldom a sermon, such as Paul preached 
before Felix, which covers the wide field of this grand " hope 
toward God." And all that splendid truth concerning things 
to come, of which this hope is the center, many Christians are 
as ignorant about as babes. Even good people pronounce such 
themes unprofitable." The Eschatoloyy of the Future. L. C. 
Bakes, 



292 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



tliodox " system, that like the sun and moon and eleven 
stars, in the dream of Joseph, they revolve around it and 
do obeisance to it. 

But we cannot pursue this line of thought further. 
We have done what we could in the foregoing pages, 
within such restricted limits, to set forth the evil origin, 
the disastrous influence, and the anti-scriptural character 
of this dogma, and to reset in their proper places in the 
evangelical system, some of the more important doctrines 
it has displaced, perverted and obscured, with the earnest 
hope that our labor may not prove to be in vain. And 
now, as a proper sequel to our chapter on the " Genesis 
of Sin and Death," we must ask the reader's attention in 
the closing pages of this last chapter to what, in the 
terms of Scripture we may call the Exodus of Sin and 
Death. 

We are so accustomed to the mixture of good and evil 
in this imperfect state, that it is difficult for us to con- 
ceive of the one without the other. Holiness and sin, 
joy and sorrow, life and death, light from above and 
darkness from beneath, mingle together in this midway 
sphere. Everything that is true and bright and lovely 
has its counterpart, in that which is false and dark and 
hateful. It has always been so in our experience, and we 
naturally come to feel that it must always continue to be 
so. Or, if these extremes do not meet and mingle in the 
same scene or person, they must somehow be perpetuated 
as cotemporary with each other, and necessary to a com- 
plete universe. It seems unnatural, from our past expe- 
rience and training, to think of a heaven without a hell 
somewhere to balance it ; of the King of glory with His 
holy angels, without thinking of the Devil and his 
angels also ; of the ransomed of the Lord, rejoicing for- 



Chap. XVI.] THE EXODUS OF SIN AND DEATTT. 203 

ever in the kingdom of light and life, without thinking 
also of the lost, suffering and wailing forever in a king- 
dom of darkness and death. The idea that the time 
ever will come, or can come, or ought to come, when 
there shall be no sin anywhere, no sorrow, no darkness, 
no death, no devil, no hell, but one complete rounded 
universe of holy, happy creatures, centering in God, and 
revolving round Him as the Source of their life and all 
their blessedness, seems so strange and extravagant to 
those who have been trained to regard sin and suffering 
as an integral part of the universe, that they are afraid 
to indulge it. They look with suspicion upon any one 
who ventures to express the hope of such a consumma- 
tion, as though he were giving up an essential part of the 
orthodox faith. To most Christians, evil seems to be as 
permanent a part of the universe as good ; the eternal 
existence of Satan the destroyer, as certain and logically 
necessary, as that of Christ the Saviour. 

Theologians have undertaken to show that this perpet- 
ual antagonism or antithesis is necessary in the very 
nature of things, or, at any rate, the continued existence 
of sin, with its consequent suffering, is necessary to the 
maintenance of the holy obedience and blessedness of 
God's loyal subjects.* Zoroaster and his followers held 

* " The smoke of their torment shall ascend up in the sight 
of the blessed forever and ever and serve as a most clear glass 
always before their eyes to give them a constant, bright and 
most affecting view. . . . This display of the Divine character 
and glory will be in favor of the redeemed, and most entertain- 
ing, and give the highest pleasure to those who love God, and 
raise their happiness to ineffable heights.'' 

" Should this eternal punishment cease and this fire be extin- 
guished, it would in a great measure, obscure the light of 
heaven and put an end to a great part of the happiness and 
glory of the blessed." Hopkins' Works, Vol II. , pp. £57, 458. 



294 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part IL 



that there are two eternal principles ; the one good, and 
the other evil ; both without beginning, and both with- 
out end, eternally in conflict with each other ; the one 
they called " Ormnzd " and the other " Ahriman." 

But these Christian theologians, less consistent than 
they, hold that, while there are now two such principles 
at war with each other, only the good had no beginning 
and is eternal in the past ; evil is an interloper; and dates 
its origin in time ; but now that it has begun to be, it 
must forever remain, to mar the beauty of this once per- 
fect system. God Himself cannot, or does not choose to 
eradicate it or put an end to its existence. 

But, in opposition to these heathen and sophisticated 
Christian teachers we hold to the Scriptural doctrine of 
the eternity of the good, both a parte ante and a parte 
post, and the transitory nature of evil. Evil is but an Epi- 
sode in the unfolding of God's perfect plan. As it had a 
beginning in time, so it shall have an end in time. How- 
ever necessary it might have been to this incipient, pre- 
paratory stage of our existence ; however useful as a foil 
or background to the picture yet to be, or as a means for 
the display of the riches of God's grace ; however neces- 
sary night may be to the introduction of the day, or the 
knowledge of evil to the more perfect knowledge of good, 
or the experience of death to the enjoyment of life eter- 
nal, or of sin, to "the bringing in of everlasting right- 
eousness " ; it is but incidental and temporary after all, 
and not integral and perpetual ; and the time will come, 
when, having fully served its purpose, whatever that pur- 
pose may be, it will come to an end. 

" What is the chaff to the wheat," that it should be 
garnered and preserved forever? Why should the stag- 
ing, used in the erection of a building, be suffered to re- 
main forever, after the edifice is finished, to disfigure its 



Chap. XVI. J THE EXODUS OF SIX AXD DEATH. 295 



beauty '? Of what value are the chips and debris but to 
be destroyed '? Why should the fogs and mists that usher 
in the coming day, remain forever to obscure the light of 
the risen sun ? Why should the Almighty be beholden 
to the devil to aid Him in sustaining and perpetuating 
His righteous government over His holy and blessed 
subjects? 

We believe that the devil and all his works will be ut- 
terly destroyed ; that " death shall be abolished, and 
swallowed up of life n ; that all evil shall give place to 
good, and that the time will come, when " sorrow and 
sighing " shall be unknown. and there shall be no more 
pain M ; that the victory, which the Son of God shall gain 
over all His enemies, and the enemies of His people, will 
be complete, wanting nothing. " For it pleased the Father 
that in Him should all fulness dwell, and having made 
peace through the blood of His cross, through Him to 
reconcile all things unto Himself, whether they be things 
in earth, or things in heaven n ; " He shall gather together 
in one all things in Christ, and in the name of Jesus 
every knee shall bow, of things in heaven and things in 
earth and things under the earth, and every tongue shall 
confess, that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father/' 
To us, this glorious consummation seems essential to the 
idea of a perfect Deity; One who is perfect in goodness 
to desire, perfect in wisdom to plan, perfect in power to 
execute all His purposes of supreme benevolence, But 
we believe it mainly because this is just what His Word 
tells us ; we believe it in spite of Manichiean or Grecian 
philosophy ; we believe it in spite of theologic scholasti- 
cism and traditionalism. "Let God be true — but every 
man a liar." 

The difference between us and these teachers consists 
really in the different ideas we entertain of the power 



296 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



and perfection of our Leader. Our arguments have 
been directed sometimes to one subordinate point, and 
sometimes to another, but, in fact, the question in dis- 
pute is, "What think ye of Christ ? "—What of His 
desires? What of His purposes? What of His promises ? 
What of His power to execute them ? Is there any limit 
to His goodness, power and truth ? or any such limit, as 
to hinder Him from destroying the devil and all his 
hosts, as He has threatened to do — from desiring to put 
an end to all sin, and succeeding in His efforts " to make 
all things ne # w," as He has abundantly promised ? 

They believe that the natural life, — that which was 
given to man in his creation, — was an immortal life, and 
subject to no conditions for its endless perpetuity. — We, 
on the contrary, believe it was made conditional in the 
very outset, and liable to be forfeited by sin, and that 
man had no guarantee of its continuance, only as he 
should show himself worthy of immortality and be fitted 
to enjoy it. 

They believe that " all mankind, by their fall, lost com- 
munion with God, are under His wrath and curse, and so 
made liable to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, 
and to the pains of hell forever," and all this as their 
natural inheritance, by birth from Adam. — We believe 
the consequence of the fall to be, " cursed is the ground 
for thy sake ; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days 
of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth unto 
thee. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till 
thou return to the ground. For out of it wast thou 
taken ; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou 
return." 

They believe, that God will punish the unsaved chil- 
dren of Adam in another life, as well as in this, and eter- 
nally punish them, as well for the sin of their progenitor 



Chap. XVI.] THE EXODUS OF SIN AND DEATH. 297 

as for their own sins. — We believe that He will punish 
no one hereafter, but for his own sins. 

They believe, that future punishment " will consist in 
intensity of suffering," and that this suffering will never 
cease. — We believe that this punishment will consist in 
such suffering only, as each individual sinner shall de- 
serve — no more and no less — and that beyond the second 
death there is to be neither sin nor suffering. 

They believe, that the great end which Christ pro- 
posed, in the struggle in which He is now engaged with 
Satan in this world, — the very object for which He came 
down from heaven and died, — was to get back what He 
could of the territory that had been lost, and to recover 
a certain portion of the human race from the power of 
the adversary, and to make them pure and blessed for- 
ever in heaven, and, as for the rest, to get them with 
their diabolical leader safely under lock and key, where 
He can torment them unceasingly and forever ; and that 
in the accomplishment of all this, " He will see of the 
travail of His soul and be satisfied" We believe that 
He had an end infinitely higher and more glorious in 
view, in His advent to earth. He came to die with man, 
and for man, the just for the unjust, that He might re- 
deem him from death, impart to him His own pure im- 
mortal life by a new birth, raise him from the dead 
immortalized, and made meet for an inheritance in His 
everlasting kingdom. And that He will accomplish all 
this for all who will accept Him as their Saviour, and 
submit themselves to His heavenly discipline. As for 
those who "judge themselves unworthy of Eternal Life," 
their forfeited, miserable lives will not be, cannot be per- 
petuated forever anywhere ; their names " will be blotted 
out of the Book of Life." They will utterly perish in 
the Second death. " He shall send forth His angels, and 
13* 



298 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 



[Part II. 



they shall gather out of His kingdom, all things that 
offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them 
into a furnace of fire," and they shall be consumed like 
the chaff from the threshing floor, and there shall be 
thenceforth, " one fold and one shepherd." 

It is not according to the Divine method to reveal spir- 
itual truth in logical propositions, nor to reveal it all at 
once ; but only so far and so fast as man can receive and 
use it. To the most enlightened of the Old Testament 
Saints, many of the facts and principles of the Gospel, 
that are now clear to the child, were revealed only in dim 
and shadowy outlines. To those who were under His 
more immediate teaching, the Master said, " I have many 
things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now." 
We must not expect, even under the clearer light of 
"these last days," to be able fully to understand and de- 
scribe that which is peculiar to the dispensation yet to 
come, — the dispensation of immortality, in a spiritual 
state — or to be able to fix the precise and definite mean- 
ing of all the many allusions to it in the Scriptures. The 
inspired writers themselves did not fully comprehend the 
full import of the language they used ; and surely it is 
not the intention of the Spirit that inspired them, to give 
to us — even were it possible for us to comprehend it — 
a literal, definite and accurate account of the spiritual 
and eternal world that lies before us. All we can hope 
for now is to be assured — as we may be— of its actual ex- 
istence, to know what are our present and practical rela- 
tions to it, and to get such glimpses of its excellence and 
glory, as shall stimulate us to wise endeavors, and cheer 
our hearts, and strengthen our faith in that Adorable 
Leader who has undertaken to bring us thither. All this 
we have in the Word of God. It gives us every assur- 
ance we need, of His wisdom, goodness and power, and 



Chap. XVI.] THE EXODUS OF SIN AND DEATH. 299 

of the complete victory He will gain over all His foes 
and our foes, and of the glorious consummation, that will 
finally crown His self-sacrificing work of love. 

The celestial Paradise, with its spiritual beauties and 
glories, and c< filled with the fulness of Him that filleth 
all in all," so graphically described in the closing chapters 
of the Apocalypse, was foreshadowed, and as ^ye believe, 
meant to be typified by the terrestial Paradise, described 
in the second chapter of Genesis, with its earthly beauties 
and pleasures, where everything, according to its material 
nature was " very good." 

The enigmatical address of God to the Serpent that 
had seduced our first parents from their allegiance to 
their Maker, we understand to be prophetical of the issue 
he had challenged ; " I will put enmity between thee and 
the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, and it 
shall bruise — (or rather crush) — thy head, and thou shall 
bruise his heel" His career of apparent success for a 
time, would be followed by a crushing overthrow and ex- 
termination. The wounded heel may be made whole, but 
the head is the citadel of life. If that be crushed, death 
must sooner or later ensue. It is a popular saying, that 
a serpent will retain a sort of vitality till the sun goes 
down, even if his head be crushed, but the morning of 
the next day, will find him quite dead. 

The many promises that God made to Abraham, Isaac 
and Jacob concerning their posterity, and the extermina- 
tion of all their enemies, and especially the solemn oath He 
made to Moses : " As truly as I live, all the earth shall be 
filled with the glory of the Lord," are to be taken in no 
partial, restricted, temporal sense, but as giving the as- 
surance, that not merely the surface of the earth shall be 
cleansed and become the habitation of a holy people, but 
that it shall be cleansed in every part, and that there shall 



3oe 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part II. 



be no dark hadean depths, within its bowels, into which 
the miserable victims of His wrath shall be thrust to sin 
and suffer forever. 

The book of Psalms is full of promises, more or less 
explicit of the coming glory under the reign of Christ. 
We understand them as predicting, not simply a millen- 
nial period that shall endure only for a time — but as prom- 
ising the establishment of " a kingdom that shall never 
end." " His name shall endure forever." All nations 
shall call Him blessed. "Blessed be the Lord God of 
Israel, who only doeth wondrous things ; and blessed 
be His glorious name forever. Let the tohole earth be 
filled with His glory, Amen ; and Amen." 

The prophets describe, in the most glowing terms, the 
completeness of the victory over all evil, and the fulness 
of the glory of His everlasting kingdom. There shall be 
nothing to hurt or destroy throughout all the length and 
breadth of it. " The ransomed of the Lord shall return 
and come to Zion with songs ; and everlasting joy shall 
be on their heads ; aiid they shall obtain joy and glad- 
ness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." " The 
mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into 
singing, and all the trees shall clap their hands." " In- 
stead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree ; instead of 
the brier, shall come up the myrtle tree, and it shall be 
to the Lord for a name and for an everlasting sign, that 
shall not be cut off." " In the days of these kings shall the 
God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be 
destroyed ; and the kingdom shall not be left to other 
people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these 
kingdoms, and it shall stand forever." 

The Old Testament closes with a description of the 
gathering in of God's people as jewels into His kingdom, 
and the utter destruction of all the wicked. When He 



Chap. XVI.] THE EXODUS OF SIX AND DEATH. 30l 

cleanses His threshing floor, it will not be to gather the 
good wheat into one garner, and the chaff and the tares 
and the worthless rubbish into another — into some dark 
corner — there to be left to rot, and to give forth its pes- 
tilential stench forever; nor will He cast it into a fire 
that shall smoulder and fume and smoke, but refuse to 
consume it. But "the day cometh that shall burn as an 
oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, 
shall be as stubble, and the day that cometh shall lur/i 
them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them 
neither root nor branch" God forbid that we should 
hold to any philosophy that will not permit us to believe 
in so oiorious a consummation. 

o 

More especially in the Xew Testament, the main object 
of Christ's coming is declared to be, " that through death, 
He might destroy — not imprison and torment forever, 
but destroy — him that hath the power of death, that is 
the devil. " Heb. 2 : 14. " For this purpose the Son of 
God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of 
the devil." What are the works of the devil, but sin 
and sorrow and death? Indeed, Satan is now destroyed 
in every other sense, but that of his personality. What 
further destruction remains for him or can he have, but 
the destruction of his being ? The demons themselves 
were conscious of their impending fate, and cried out, 
when they saw Jesus, " What have we to do with thee, 
Jesus, thou Son of God ; art thou come hither to torment 
— to bring us to trial and punishment — before the time ? " 
Matt. 8 : 29. And again, changing the words, but not 
the thought, " Art thou come to destroy us ? " Luke 4 : 
31. Peter and Jude both assure us, that they are even 
now kept in everlasting chains — or chains from which 
they cannot escape — under darkness unto the judgment 
of the great day — that day in which they shall be judged 
and destroyed, 



302 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part II. 



This was the burden of the preaching of John Baptist, 
as he went forth saying : " Repent ye for the kingdom 
of heaven is at hand, — and now the axe it laid at the root 
of the trees, therefore every tree which bringeth not 
forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire, — 
whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge 
His floor, and gather the wheat into the garner ; but He 
will burn up the chaff, with unquenchable fire." This is 
what our Lord Himself taught in the sermon on the 
Mount, and by many of His parables ; such as " The 
Tares and the Wheat " ; " The Drag Net " ; " The Tal- 
ents " " The Foolish Virgins " ; and in the scenic repre- 
sentation of the " judgment of the nations, when He 
welcomes into His everlasting kingdom only those who 
are fit for Eternal Life, and consigns the wicked to ever- 
lasting punishment, which we are elsewhere told, is the 
punishment of " everlasting destruction,'' when the Lord 
shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in 
flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not 
God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." 

Nowhere in all the Epistles is there any hint, that the 
conflict now going on between Christ and Satan shall 
issue in anything short of the complete and utter de- 
struction of this great adversary of God and man, 
"whom He shall consume with the Spirit of His mouth 
and destroy with the brightness of His coming," " Ac- 
cording to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in 
Himself, that in the dispensation of the fulness of time, 
He might gather together in one, all things in Christ, 
both which are in heaven and which are in earth." 

Paul also, in the parallel between the first and the 
second Adam, as we have already noticed in his first 
epistle to the Corinthians, shows how that which is base 
must come before that which is pure, and that which is 



Chap. XVI.] THE EXODUS OF SIN AND DEATH. 303 

natural before that which is spiritual, and that which is 
temporal, before that which is eternal. In glowing lan- 
guage he describes the glorious consummation, when that 
which is imperfect is done away, and that which is per- 
fect is come, and the righteous dead shall have been 
raised and immortalized and glorified with their risen 
Lord, and exclaims, " Then cometh the end, when He 
shall have delivered up the kingdom to God even the 
Father ; when He shall have put down all rule and all 
authority and power ; for He must reign till He hath 
put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that 
shall be destroyed is Death." 

Peter likewise in his Second Epistle describes the com- 
ing in of the last day, and the complete destruction of 
all the wicked, in that general conflagration, <c when the 
heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the earth 
shall melt with fervent heat," and then he adds, " Never- 
theless we, according to His promise, look for the new 
heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteous- 
ness." 

But it is reserved for the last book in the Bible, as we 
might naturally suppose, and especially for its concluding 
chapters, to give us the fullest description of the closing 
scenes in this earthly drama, and the most perfect picture 
of the world to come. We will not attempt to follow 
the course of this wonderful vision, through its scenes 
of conflict and carnage, and fire and smoke, in which our 
Lord, now as the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning 
and the Ending, which was and is and is to come, the Al- 
mighty, and now as the " Lamb of God, which was slain 
from the foundation of the world," and now as a glorious 
conquering Prince, is described as waging war with the 
many protean forms of evil, personified under every 



304 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part II. 



actual and imaginable symbol or image. The grotesque 
imagery of beasts with many heads and horns, of dragons 
belching forth floods of water, of horses breathing fire 
from their nostrils, of locusts with scorpion stings, of an- 
gels flying through the air with vials of wrath, or with 
sickles, with which to reap the harvest of the earth, 
which the Seer employs, — the impossible figures he intro- 
duces, the extravagant language he uses, are such as to 
defy all logical analysis or definite and precise applica- 
tion. Nor is it at all necessary to a most clear under- 
standing of the object for which he employs them, and 
of the truth he intends to express, and of the certain 
results toward which they all point us ; namely : the 
overthrow and abolishment of all evil, and of all opposi- 
tion to the Gospel, whatever form it may assume, or 
however strongly it may be entrenched, or however vig- 
orously it may contend, and the ultimate reign of right- 
eousness, peace and love throughout the universal 
kingdom of God. 

We see how mystical Babylon, that had so long held 
sway in power and pride, is overthrown and consumed 
by fire, like Sodom of old ; how the Beast and the False 
Prophet, whatever forms of organized evil they may be 
thought to represent, are unceasingly tormented and then 
consumed in " the lake of fire and brimstone," and how 
finally, the great Head-center of all this apostacy and 
iniquity, the Arch enemy of God and man, is first bound 
for a season, and then, when his time is fully come, is 
judged and destroyed with all his hosts in the same lake 
of fire with the Beast and the False Prophet. 

Then — after how long an interval we know not — 
cometh the end. The Judge is seated upon His great 
white throne, and before His face heaven and earth flee 



I Chap. XVI.] THE EXODUS OF SIN AND DEATH. 305 

away; the dead, small and great, stand before Him. The 
books are opened, and every one is judged according to 
his works. And another book is opened, which is the 
Book of Life. And whosoever is not found WTitten in 
the Book of Life (en te biblo tes zoes) is cast into the 
lake of fire prej3ared for the devil and his angels. This 
is the Second Death. And Death and Hell also are 
cast into the same all-consuming lake of fire ; and this 
old earth, with its Sheet, its Hades, its Gehenna, its 
Tophet, its Tartarus, or by whatever name the place of 
the abode of the wicked herein confined may be known, 
is consumed with the visible heavens, in one general con- 
flagration ; and the curtain falls upon time, and eternity 
begins. 

Once more for a little season it is lifted, and we look 
in, for a moment, upon the glories of the celestial and 
eternal world. We see a new heaven and a new earth, 
" for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away." 
We see the " New Jerusalem coming down from God out 
of heaven," with its jasper walls, its pearly gates, its 
brilliant palaces, its golden streets and a pure river of 
water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the 
throne of God and of the Lamb and in the midst of the 
street of it, and on either side of the river, is the Tree 
of Life, bearing twelve manner of precious fruits. 
There are no cherubim with flaming swords to guard its 
approach. The gates are not shut by day — there is no 
night there — We see its celestial and glorified inhabitants, 
clothed in white, with crowns on their heads, and harps 
in their hands, singing praises unto God and the Lamb. 
" There shall be no more curse." " There shall be no 
more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there 
be any more pain, /or the former things are passed away P 



306 



THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. [Part II. 



The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed 
them, and lead them unto living fountains of water, and 
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ; and they 
shall see His face, and His name shall be in their fore- 
heads. And there shall be no night there, and they need 
no candle, neither light of the Sun, for the Lord God 
giveth them light and they shall reign forever and ever. 

These sayings are faithful and true. " He which tes- 
tifieth these things saith surely I come quickly. Amen, 
even so, come, Lord Jesus." 



SUPPLEMENT. 



The Two Doctrines of Human Immortality 
Contrasted. 



In our reading on both sides of this question of Human Im- 
mortality, — and this has embraced a very large number of 
authors, — we have noted many striking passages, a few of 
which have been introduced into the body of this volume; 
others have been added as foot notes since completing it: 
there are still many others, some of which, — for the material is 
too copious to admit of anything more than here and there 
certain fragmentary selections, — will, perhaps, serve a useful 
purpose, by being gathered into this supplementary note, under 
the two classes to which they belong, and placed side by side 
on opposite pages. The reader will then be able, at a glance, 
to see what has been said by various authors, inspired and un- 
inspired, theological, philosophical, polemical and poetical, on 
this question pro and con, and by comparing these opposing 
views with each other and with the Word of God, he will be 
able easily to decide for himself which of these two conflicting 
theories has the sanction of Scripture, and which is in conflict 
with it. 

While this question presents a great variety of phases, there 
are in reality but two sides to it, or two main theories concern- 
ing it. We understand them to be substantially and in general 
terms as follows: 

[N. B. The reader will understand that the Scriptural view is 
continued throughout on the Left hand pages; and the Anti-scrip- 
tural view on the Bight hand pages, to the end.] 



308 



THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINT3, 



"Thou shalt surely die."— Jehovah. 

STATEMENT OF DOCTRINE. 

Exemption from death was assured to Adam on condition of per- 
fect obedience. Failing through sin, to secure this, he became a 
mortal man, and the progenitor of a mortal and sinful race. 

But a second Adam, even the Son of God from heaven, who is 
both sinless and absolutely immortal, has been provided, by whom 
the whole Adamic race have been redeemed from death, and through 
whom immortality is again made possible for every one who wiU 
receive it in the way made known in the Gospel; — " For God so 
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever 
believeth in Him should not perish, but have Everlasting Life" 
Those who fail of this great salvation, whether many or few, must 
of necessity, utterly and forever perish in the Second Death, from 
which there is no recovery. 



"And the Lord God commanded the man saying, Of every 
tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of 
the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in 
the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." 
Jehovah. 

"And the Lord said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, 
to know good and evil; and now lest he put forth his hand and 
take also of the Tree of Life and live forever — Therefore the 
Lord sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground 
from whence he was;taken." Jehovah. 

What can these words mean unless they mean what they say, 
that God would not allow the life of man to be endlessly per- 
petuated after he had sinned, that this was the very reason why 
he was debarred from the Tree of Life — " Lest he put forth his 
hand and eat and live forever, Therefore," he was driven from 
the garden. 

And the Lord said " Cursed is the ground for thy sake, in sor- 
row shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy (natural) life — till 
thou return unto the ground ; for out of it wast thou taken. 
For dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return. .... And 
all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty 
years; and he died " Gen. 3: 17, 19, and 5: 5. Jehovah. 

" The wicked is reserved to the day of destruction ." Job. 

" The wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall 
be as the fat of lambs ; they shall consume ; into smoke shall 
they consume away." David. 

" The lamp of the wicked shall be put out." Solomon. 

"The soul that sinneth, it shall die." Ezekiel. 

" The destruction of transgressors and of sinners shall be to- 
gether, and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed." 
Isaiah. 

[Continued on next left hand page.] 



THE ANTI-SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE. 



309 



"Ye shall not surely die."— Satan. 

STATEMENT OF DOCTRINE. 

An unconditional and inevitable Immortality was assured to 
Adam in his creation; and he was constituted the progenitor of a 
race of beings who like himself are immortal.* By sin he incurred 
for himself and all his posterity the wrath and curse of God, and 
the consequent doom of " Everlasting punishment " (in the sense of 
endless torment or misery) beyond this life; from which doom there 
is no salvation but through a Divine Saviour. 

Such a Saviour has been provided in Jesus Christ. At this point 
believers in the natural and necessary immortality of man divide 
into two Schools, viz.: 1. Par tialists, who hold that this endless 
punishment id ill be the certain doom of a portion of the human 
race ; 2. Universalists, who, revolting from so dreadful a conclu- 
sion, hold (with more or less confidence), that every individual of 
the race will, sooner or later, be saved to a blessed immortality. 



"And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely 
die ; for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof your 
eyes shall be opened ; and ye shall be as gods knowing good 
and evil." Satan. 

"The soul was created immortal. Both the body and the 
mind of man were originally formed and destined for Immor- 
tality. After the apostacy, however, the body was sentenced to 
return to dust. [The Bible says ' Thou ' not thy body, but thou 
thyself.] But the soul was left possessed of the never dying 
principle with which it was originally endowed; was incapable 
of dissolution and indestructible except by the exertion of Al- 
mighty Power." Theology Ser. 22. T. Dwight. 

[This is Platonic Scholasticism. It has been read into the 
Scriptures. It is not found there. No such distinction is 
made in them between Adam's body and Adam's soul. The 
command is addressed to one individual Thou; and the penalty 
falls upon the whole individual. In the death threatened by 
God, and in the death denied by Satan, and in the death which 
it is said " he died," the same word muth is used throughout, 
and must carry the same meaning and be equally inclusive.] 

"With lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, 
whom I have not made sad, and strengthened the hands of the 
wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by 
promising him Life." God thus rebukes, by the mouth of Ezekiel, 
The False Prophets. 



*Some hold that children derive their immortality by traduction from their 
progenitor ; others that it is directly from God, by creation ; while conditional- 
ists hold that it is bestowed as a special gift, only by a spiritual or second 
birth. 

{Continued on next right hand page.] 



310 



THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRIXE, 



"Thou Shalt surely die. Jehovah. 

" They shall be as though they had uot been." Obadiah. 

"The day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the 
proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble : and the 
day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, 
that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. " Malachi. 

f; Whose fan is in His hand and He will thoroughly purge 
His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but the chart 
will He burn up with unquenchable fire." Johx Baptist. 

" Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again 
he cannot see the Kingdom of God. As Moses lifted up'the 
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted 
up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but 
have everlasting life." " I am the Door; by Ale if any man en- 
ter in he shall be saved. I give unto them Eternal Life: and 
they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my 
hand." "If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your 
sins.'' "Ye will not come unto Me that ye might have life." 
'•This is Eternal Life that they might know Thee the only true 
God and Jesus Christ, whom Thou has sent." Jesus Christ 
our Lord. 

K There is none other name under heaven given among men. 
whereby we must be saved; neither is there salvation in any 
other." " But these, as natural brute beasts— shall utter I y perish 
in their own corruption/' — "The day of judgment and perdi- 
tion of ungodly men." The Apostle Peter. 

" The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is Eternal 
Life through Jesus Christ our Lord.-' ''If ye live after the 
flesh, ye shall die ; but if ye, through the spirit do mortify the 
deeds of the body, ye shall live. He that soweth to the flesh 
shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the 
spirit, shall of the spirit reap Life Everlasting." " If our Gos- 
pel be hid. it is hid to them that are lost n — " whose end is de- 
struction." The Apostle Paul. 

"Sin when it is finished, bringeth forth Death.' 5 "Let him 
know that he which converteth a sinner from the error of his 
way shall save a soul from death, and hide a multitude of sins." 
The Apostle James. 

" This is the record, that God hath given to us Eternal Life, 
and this Life is in His Son. He that hath the Son, hath the Life 
and he that hath not the Son. hath not the Life/" 7 "'And I saw 
the dead stand before God. and the books were opened, and the 
dead were judged, and whosoever was not found written in the 
Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. And death and hell 
were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.'' The 
Apostle Joh^". 

[Continued on next left hand page.] 



THE ANTI-SCEIPTUEAL DOCTKIXE. 



311 



"Ye shall not surely die."— Satan. 

What may have been surmised or said or taught by such an- 
cient philosophers and theological speculators and poets as 
Thales, Zoroaster, Heraclitus, Empedodes, Pythagoras, Xenoph- 
anes, Anaxagoras. Democritus, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, 
Epicurus, Zeno, Epictetus. Pliny, Seneca, and other famous 
men of the pagan world, it does not concern us now particular- 
ly to inquire. ^Some of them argued the indestructible nature 
of the human soul as a logical deduction from the postulate of 
its eternal pre-existence : others entertained ideas of a me- 
tempsychosis or universal transmigration of souls, and of ulti- 
mate absorption into the divine essence and complete loss of 
all personal identity ; others of an utter extinguishment of all 
being in death: others of a shadowy, ghostly existence after this 
life, and of various pleasures for the good, and of tortures for 
the bad, ending perhaps in their annihilation, or in their puri- 
fication and restoration to happiness or perhaps, in the final 
destruction of both in the general consummation and ruin of 
all things. Their ideas were so vague, fluctuating, fanciful, 
conflicting and contradictory, as to forbid the belief that they 
were very generally seriously entertained by those who put them 
forth, or by those upon whom they were imposed. They are 
such at any rate, as to defy all attempt to classify or arrange 
them on either side of this question. 



Nowhere throughout the pagan world, either in ancient or in 
modern times, unillumined by the light of Divine revelation do 
we find any such doctrine of an individual personal immortality 
as now so generally prevails throughout Christendom, much 
less any conception of that way of attaining to it as is brought 
to light in the Gospel. Even Plato the wisest of all the pagan 
philosophers was constrained to say, " It appears to me that 
to know them (the truths relating to the destiny of man) clearly, 
in this present life, is either impossible or very difficult. . . We 
must wait till some one, either God or some inspired man teach 
us— and remove the darkness from our eyes." — What then are 
we taught by these premonitions of the future, these anxious 
desires, these hopes and fears which are common to all thinking 
men even in the darkness of heathenism? — Surely, not that the 
immortality for which men naturally long is assured to them ; 
but rather the contrary — that they are made with a capacity for 
an endless life and that they might possess it if they were only 
fitted to enjoy it: but that the boon has been forfeited, and 
that no mere" man is wise enough to tell how it is to be 
regained or able to attain to it without divine help. Here in 
this universal sentiment, is seen the necessity for the Gospel. 
It is to this sentiment that it addresses itself. It is this, in- 
deed, that makes it a Gospel — a message of good tidings to per- 
ishing men. 

[Continued on next right hand page.] 



312 



THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE. 



"Thou shalt surely die."— Jehovah. 
Not one word or hint of the natural immortality of man, 
which occupies so prominent a place in the writings of the 
Post Xicene Fathers, can be found in any of the writings of the 
Earlier Fathers. They always and uniformly speak of Immor- 
tality and Eternal life as the Gift of God to the redeemed and 
the peculiar portion of believers ; and of the wicked as doomed 
to Everlasting destruction. It is not till after Platonism has 
been engrafted upon the teachings of Christ and His Apostles, 
that we rind any other doctrine. — We can find place for only a 
few brief citations. For a more full and complete confirmation 
of this position, the reader is referred to the "Ante Nicene 
Christian Library," edited by A. Roberts d.d. and J. Doxald- 
sox LL.L. 

" Thou shalt not join thyself to those who are condemned to 
death." "He that chooseth evil shall be destroyed together 
with his works." 

" They that put their trust in Him shall live forever." 

Barxabas a.d. 90. 

" How blessed and wonderful are the gifts of God — Life" 
in Immortality ! etc. 1 Epistle of Clemext a.d. 100. 

"Those who possess these virtues. . . abide unto Eternal 
Lift." .... "They shall live in the world to come." 
" Sin brings death." . . . "All who will not repent have lost 
their life." " They are ordained to death." " They condemn 
themselves to death." "Life is far from them," etc., etc. 
Hebmas a.d. 104. 

"Be vigilant as God's athlete; the reward is. incorrupt-ion 
and Eternal life " "The bread of God which is the body of 
Christ, I seek and His blood, which is love incorruptible and 
perpetual life." '* Christ is our inseparable life " " That He 
might breathe the breath of immortality into His Church." 4, The 
bread which is the medicine of immortality, our antidote, that 
we should not die, but live forever." Ignatius a.d. 107. 

"There are two ways, one of Life and one of Death." The 

way of Life is this " This is the way of Life." " Now 

the way of Death is this "... 

" Thou shalt share all things with thy brother; for if ye are 
partners in that which is deathless (athanato), how much more 
in things perishable" (tois thanatois), etc. Teaching of the 
Twelve Apostles,— recently discovered manuscript — probable 
date a.d. 100-150. Axoxymous. 

" God alone is uncreated and incorruptible; but all things 
beside Him are created and perishable. For this reason souls 
both die and are punished. For the soul cannot live of itself as 
God does. But as the personal man does not always exist, and 
body and soul are not forever conjoined, but whenever this 
harmony may be dissolved, the soul leaves the body, and the 
man is no more ; so likewise whenever it is necessary that the 
[Continued on mxt left liand page.] 



» 



THE ANTI— SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE. 313 

"Ye shall not surely die."— Satan. 
Hence the Apostle Paul writes to the Galatians, " If any man 
preach any other Gospel unto you," any other than that 
Eternal life can only be found but in Christ — " Let him be 
accursed.''* 



From the middle of the second century onward, we notice a 
marked change in the teaching of the Fathers in the character 
of the questions they discussed and in the phraseology they 
employed, introduced by the Platonic philosophers who had 
come into the Christian church. Questions relating to the na- 
ture of man. the soul of man; the nature of the punishment 
that would be inflicted on the wicked, and similar themes come 
now prominently into view. There is an evident effort to bring 
the doctrines of Christianity into accord with the popular teach- 
ing of the schools, Dropping the idea of the eternal pre-exis- 
tence of the soul as taught by Plato, but which is too evidently 
atheistic to be retained, these Christianized Platonists en- 
deavored to show that the doctrine of natural immortality, as 
taught by him, is substantially the same as that taught by the 
Scripture — that the redeemed are not actually made immortal 
by a new birth from above, but that they are naturally and 
inherently immortal. In this way the vital distinction between 
the saved and the lost was effectually ignored, and the real 
fundamental principle of the Gospel was hidden from view. 
Those phrases, such as "the immortal soul," " the never dying 
soul," u the death that never dies." that have become so com- 
mon in our so-called Christian teaching, now begin to appear in 
their writings. 



The doctrine of the eternal torment of the unsaved, as a 
logical deduction from that of the necessary immortality of all 
souls, now begins to find advocates. 

Even Justin, who was an earnest Christian teacher, had been 
so thoroughly imbued with this philosophy before his conver- 
sion, that hebrought much of it with him into his Christian 
teaching. He still continued to wear the philosophers garb, 
and though he was for the most part faithful to the Gospel in 
the main, here and there ambiguous expressions leaning 
toward the Platonic view of the human soul may be found in 
some of his writings. But these views were more and more 
decidedly expressed under his successors, until eventually the 
teaching of Moses and the Prophets and of Christ aud the 
Apostles was completely subordinated to the philosophy of 
Plato; and this was made the rigid and unbending rule for the 
interpreting the Scriptures. 

[Continued on next right hand jxige.] 

u 



314 



THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE. 3 ' 



"Thou shaft surely die."— Jehovah. 

soul should no longer be (Mnai) the vital spark leaves it, and 
the soul isno more, but itself returns whence it was taken." 

" God delays causing the confusion and destruction of the 
whole world, by which wicked angels, and demons and men shall 
cease to exist." Justix Martyr a.d. 135. 

"Death was sent as a benefit to Adam, that he might not 
continue forever existent in sin." " When thou shalt have put 
off mortality and have put on immortality, thou wilt worthily 
see God. For God shall raise up thy flesh immortal with thy 
soul, then having become immortal, thou wilt see him who is 
immortal, if thou believe on him here." 

" But some will say, was man made mortal by nature? By 
no means. Immortal ? Nor do we say that. If immortal, He 
would have made him a god. If mortal God would have 
seemed to be the author of sin. Therefore He made him 
neither mortal nor immortal, but capable of both, so that if he 
was carried to the things that lead to immortality, he might 
receive immortality as a reward and become godlike. But on 
the other hand, if he should turn to the works of death he 
might become the author of death to himself. Now God 
repairs the evil. For as man brought death upon himself by 
disobedience, so by obeying the will of God, he that chooseth 
may obtain for himself the Eternal Life. For God has given us 
a law and holy precepts which every one who does, may be 
saved, and obtaining the resurrection may inherit immortality." 
Theophiltjs a.d. 182. 

" The unbelievers and the blinded of this world shall not 
inherit the world of the life to come." " The Apostolic doctrine 
is that they who believe in Him shall be immortal." 

" Life is not from ourselves, or from our nature, but it is 
given or bestowed according to the grace of God ; and therefore 
he who preserves the gift of Life, and returns thanks to Him 
who bestows it, he shall receive length, of days forever and ever; but 
he who rejects it, and proves unthankful to his Maker for cre- 
ating him, and will not know Him who bestows it, — he deprives 
himself of the gift of duration to all eternity. And therefore the 
Lord speaks thus of such unthankful persons. If you have not 
been faithful in that which is least, who will commit much to 
you ? — intimating thereby unto us that they who are unthank- 
ful to Him with respect to this short transitory life which is 
His gift — the effect of His bounty — shall be most justly deprived 
of length of days for ever and ever." 

" For it was to this end that the Word of God was made man, 
and He who was the Son of God became the Son of Man, that 
man having been taken into the Word, and received the adoption, 
might become the Son of God. For by no other means 
could he have attained to incorruptibility and immortality, 
But how could we be joined to incorruptibility and immortality, 
[Continued on next left hand page.] 



THE ANTI-SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE. 



315 



"Ye shall not surely die."— Satan. 

But the gross vehemence with which this fearful doctrine of 
the eternal torment of the unsaved was urged by Tatian, Ter- 
tullian, Hippolytus and others, and the lurid pictures which 
were drawn of their hopeless agonies, produced a reaction in 
the minds of many who were of the same philosophic school; 
and as a consequence, we soon find Clement of Alexandria, and 
Gregory Thaumaturgus, with many others, especially Origen 
the most prominent of all, devising and advocating schemes of 
a general restoration, by which, not the wicked themselves 3 
but only their sins were to be destroyed or purged away in 
eternal fire, while their souls were to be made pure and blessed 
forever. This doctrine, with various modifications, is having a 
remarkable revival in our day. Hence in the citations which 
follow under the general head of the natural and inevitable 
immortality of man, a great variety of views will be found ex- 
pressed. No attempt will be made to classify them, or to 
arrange them in doctrinal or chronological order. 



Athenagoras in the closing years of the second century was 
one of the first if not the very first who explicitly -taught this 
doctrine. He says : 

" Knowing that when released from this life, we shall 
either live another nobler, not earthly but heavenly — or if we 
share the ruin of others, a worse life, even in, fire — for God did 
not create us like sheep or cattle, to serve a purpose, and then 
perish and disappear." [This by the way is the very argu- 
ment Dr. T. Dwight in his system of theology employes to prove 
the necessary immortality of man. He says (Ser. xxviii) that 
the "death " threatened to Adam " could not have been anni- 
hilation; for this was certainly no part of God's design in the 
creation of man."] 



"Eternal Life will be the lot of the damned." "Every soul 
is immortal." " The philosophers know the difference between 
secret {ignis sapiens) and common fire. That which serves for 
the use of man is of quite another nature from that which min- 
isters to the justice of God, whether it hurls thunderbolts 
from heaven, or belches forth from the volcano, for it burns 
without consuming and repairs what it preys upon. The 
mountains remain though everburning; the man who is struck 
by lightning is not reduced to ashes by the fire. Here is a 
witness of the eternal fire, an emblem of judgment perpetually 
feeding its penalty. The mountains burn and ever endure; 
why not guilty men, the enemies of God ? ' ' 



[Continued on next right hand page.] 



316 THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE. 

"Thou shalt surely die."— Jehovah. 

unless first incorruptibility and immortality had become that 
which we also are, so that the corruptible might be swal- 
lowed up by incorruptibility and the mortal by immortal- 
ity, that we might receive the adoption of Sons ? " 

" This was done that man should not suppose that the incor- 
ruptibility which belongs to God, is his own naturally, and 
also, by not holding the truth, should boast with empty pride, 
as if he were naturally like G-od. For Satan thus rendered 
man more ungrateful to his Creator, obscured the love which God 
had toward man and blinded his iniud, not to perceive what 
is worthy of God, and comparing himself and judging himself 
equal with God. This, therefore, was the object of God's long- 
suffering, that man, passing through all things, and acquiring 
the knowlege of discipline, then attaining the resurrection 
from the dead, and learning from experience what is the source 
of his salvation, may always live in a state of gratitude to the 
Lord, having obtained from Him the gift of incorruptibility 
that he might love ITim the more, and that he may know him- 
self how frail and mortal he is ; while he also understands God 
that He is immortal and powerful to such a degree as to confer 
immortality upon what is mortal and eternity upon what is tem- 
porary.- Ieexjeus (Lib. 3: 18, 19.) a.d. 20S. 

'"Will you lay aside your habitual arrogance.. O men, who 
claim God as your Father, and maintain that you are immortal, 
just as He is? Will you inquire, examine, search what you are 
yourselves: whose you are; of what parentage you are supposed 
to be ; what you do in the world ; in what way you are born ; 
how you leap" into life? Will you, laying aside all partiality, 
consider, in the silence of your thoughts that w T e are creatures 
either quite like the rest, or separated by no great dirierence ? *' 
(Cap. 2: 16.) * 4 Your interests are in jeopardy — the salvation 
I mean of your souls ; and unless you give yourselves to know 
the Supreme God, a miserable death awaits you, not bringing 
sudden abolishment, but destroying by the bitterness of its grievous 
and protracted torment. Xone but Almighty God can preserve 
souls; nor is there any one beside who can give them length of 
days, and grant them a spirit that shall never die, except He 
who alone is immortal and everlasting and restricted by no 
limit of time." (Cap. 62.) " For souls are of a middle or interme- 
diate quality, as has been learned from Christ's teaching, and 
they are such that they may, on the one hand, perish, if they 
have not known God; and on the other hand, be delivered from 
death, if they have given heed to His threatenings and proffered 
favors. And to make manifest what is unknown, this is man's 
real death — this which leaves nothing behind. For that which is 
seen by the eyes is only a separation of soul from body, not the 
last end of abolishment; this I say is man's real death, when 
souls which know not God shall be consumed with raging fi re in 
protracted torment." (Cap. 14.) Akxobius a.d. 300. 

[Continued on next left hand page.] 



THE ANTI-SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE. 317 



"Ye shaii not surely die."— Satan. 
" You are fond of spectacles ; but there are other spectacles ; 
that day which is disbelieved, derided by the nations, the last 
and eternal day of judgment, when all ages shall be swallowed 
up in one conflagration — what a variety of spectacles shall then 
appear ? How shall I admire, how laugh, how exult, when I 
behold so many kings and false gods in heaven together with 
Jove himself groaning in the lowest abyss of darkness ; so many 
magistrates who persecuted the name of the Lord, liquifying in 
fiercer flames than they ever kindled against Christians ; so many 
sage philosophers blushing in raging fire, with their scholars 
whom they persuaded to despise God, and to disbelieve the 
resurrection ; and so many poets shuddering before the tri- 
bunal, not of Rhadamanthus, not of Minos, but of the disbe- 
lieved Christ! Then shall we hear the tragedians more tune- 
ful in the expression of their own sufferings ; then shall we see 
the dancers more sprightly, amidst the flames ; the charioteer 
all red-hot in his burning car; and the wrestlers hurled, not 
upon the accustomed list, but upon a plain of fire." (Be Spec- 
taculis C. SO.) Terttjllian a.d. 220. 



"For if ye believe that the soul is originated and is made 
immortal by God, according to the opinion of Plato, we ought 
not to refuse that God is abie to raise the body which is com- 
posed of the same elements, and make it immortal 

To those who have done well shall be assigned righteously 
eternal bliss, and to the lovers of iniquity shall be given eternal 
punishment. And this fire which is unquenchable and with- 
out end, awaits those latter, and a certain fiery worm which 
dieth not, and which does not waste the body, but continues 
bursting forth from the body with unending pain. JSo sleep 
will give them rest ; no night will soothe them ; no death will 
deliver them from punishment ; no voice of interceding friends 
will profit them." Hippolytus a.d. 238. 



" Whereas some have dared to assert concerning the nature 
of the reasonable soul that it is mortal; we, with the approba- 
tion of the Sacred Council, do condemn and reprobate all who 
assert that the intellectual soul is mortal, seeing that the soul 
is not only truly and of itself and essentially the form of the 
human body, as it is expressed in the Canon of Pope Clement 
Fifth, and likewise ImmoPvTAl; and we strictly inhibit all from 
dogmatizing otherwise ; and we do decree that all who adhere 
to the like erroneous assertions shall be shunned and punished 
as heretics." Pope Leo X. 

[Continued on next right hand page.] 



318 



THE SCULPTURAL DOCTRINE , 



Thou sha!t surely die."— Jehovah. 

"Man stands erect and looks upward because immortality is 
offered him, though it comes not unless given from God, For 
there would be no difference between the just and the unjust 
if every man that is bom were made immortal. Immortality, 
therefore, is not a law of our nature, but the wages and reward 
of virtue." Lactaxtius a.d. 370. 

"In putting departed souls in heaven, hell and purgatory, 
you destroy the arguments wherewith Christ and Paul prove 
the resurrection. What God doth with them, that shall we 
know when we come to them. The true faith putteth the resur- 
rection, which we are warned to look for every hour. The 
heathen philosophers denying that, did put that^souls did ever 
live. And the pope joineth the spiritual doctrine of Christ anc> 

the fleshly doctrine of philosophers together things so 

contrary that they cannot agree. And because the fleshly 
minded pope consenteth unto heathen doctrine therefore he 
corrupteth the Scriptures to establish it. If the souls be in 
heaven, tell me why they be not in as good case as the angels 
be, and then what cause is there of the resurrection? " 

William Tyxdale. 

"I permit the pope to establish articles of faith for his faith- 
ful followers ; such as the bread and wine are transmuted in 
the sacrament: that the divine essence is neither generative 
nor generated ; that the soul is the substantial form of the 
human body; and himself is the ruler of the world, and king 
of heaven, and God of earth; and that the soul is immortal ; 
and all the numberless prodigies of the Romish dunghill of 
decretals." Martix Luther. 

" The human soul is not a simple abstract entity, but is a 
concrete thing. As such it is subject to the laws of dissolution. 
Sin is per se destructive. It ruins. It destroys the soul that 
practices it. The punishment of hell consists in the sinner be- 
ing left a prey to the process of destruction, which is already 
preying upon his very being. The completion of this process is 
absolute death, — that is, it is the completed destruction of that 
concrete reality, which constitutes the human personality. 
The dissolution of material organisms is a species of com- 
bustion. This holds true of the destruction of the soul. 
As the dissolution of material organisms is their combus- 
tion, so the corrosive and disorganizing action of sin upon the 
soul, is the the soul's combustion. In this sense the scriptural 
figure of hell-fire is strictly grounded in reality. The wages of 
siu is ruin, destruction, death. As the name feeds upon the 
consuming candle until its whole substance is dissipated and 
exhausted, so the wasting disease of sin feeds upon the sub- 
stance of the soul, until the personal organism is entirely 
broken down and destroyed." I)r. Richard Rothe, 

[Continued on next left hand page.] 



THE ANTI-SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE. 



319 



"Ye shall not surely die."— Satan. 

The Koran abounds in such "orthodox" sentiments as 
these: 

"The unbelievers shall be companions of hell-rlre forever; " 
" Those who disbelieve we will surely cast to be broiled in hell- 
fire ; so often as their skins shall be burned, we will give them 
other skins in exchange, that they may taste the sharper tor- 
ment. " " They shall be dragged on their faces into hell, and it 
shall be said unto them ' Taste ye that torment of hell-fire which 
ye rejected as a falsehood," " They shall be taken by the fore- 
locks and the feet and flung into hell, where they shall drink 
scalding water." " The true believers, lying on couches, shall 
look down upon the infidels in hell and laugh them to scorn." 
Mohammed. 



" The bodies of men after death return to dust and see cor- 
ruption; but their souls (which neither die, nor sleep), having 
an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God who gave 
them. The souls of the righteous, then being made perfect in 
holiness, are received into the highest heavens, where they be- 
hold the face of God in light and glory, waiting for the full 
redemption of their bodies; and the souls of the loicked are cast 
into hell, where they remain in torment and utter darkness 
reserved to the judgment of the great day." Presbyterian Con- 
fession of Faith. 



"Those wicked men who died many years ago, their souls 
went to hell, and there they are still ; those who went to hell in 
former ages of the world have been in hell ever since, all the 
while suffering torment. They have nothing else to spend their 
time in there, but to suffer torment; they are kept in being for 
no other purpose " Sermons Vol. IL, J. Edwards. 



" Time that changes all, yet changes us in vain; 
The body, not the mind; nor can control 
The immortal vigor or abate the soul." Dryden. 



" The soul, immortal substance to remain; 
Conscious of joy, and capable of pain." Pope. 



" For though the soul of man 
Be got when he is made, 't is born but then 
When man doth die; and body's as the womb; 
As a midwife death directs us home." Donne. 

{Continued on next right ]uuid page.] 



320 



THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE. 



Thou shalt surely die."— Jehovah. 

" The doctrine of the immortality of the soul and the name 
are alike unknown to the entire Bible.' 7 Olshausen. 

' 6 1 must add that not a single passage from Genesis to Reve- 
lation teaches, so far as I am aware, the doctrine of man's nat- 
ural Immortality." Creative Week. G. D. Boardman. 



"The doctrine we maintain is this — that when God 
made man, He made him capable of immortality upon the .ful- 
filment of certain conditions. Immortality was, and is, a gift of 
grace; not a natural endowment to be inherited by natural 
means. I use the phrase ' Conditional Immortality ' to indi- 
cate that, in our opinion, no man will live forever on account 
of any intrinsic qualities which he has, but on account 
of a vital faith, by means of which the true Christian is brought 
into union with the Source and Giver of all life." Immortality 
in Christ. Rev. S. H. Warleigh. 



"The natural dignity and the natural immortality of man 
have, in the light, of revelation, vanished into air. His body 
corruptible, his mind earthly, have turned out to be but the shad- 
ows and representation of something better." Soul and Spirit. 
D. Thom d.d. 



" Life to the godless must be the beginning of destruction 
since nothing but God and that which pleases Him can per- 
manently exist." Bampton Lecture. Dr. Thomson, Arch- 
bishop of York. 



"Evil possesses no divine attribute; it had a beginning and 
it shall have an end. Evil is an accident of existence; it is not 
an essential, and it must be utterly extinguished. With the 
destruction of evil persons, all evil deeds and evil principles 
shall die." Man next to God. S. H. Warleigh. 



" If I believe in the hopeless doom of incorrigible sin, and also 
in the undimmed glory of a perfected Kingdom, I must believe 
in the annihilation of the incorrigibly wicked. Fire, in the 
Bible, is generally an emblem of destruction, not of torment. 
The chaff, the tares, the fruitless tree, are not to be 
tortured, but to be destroyed. The Hell-fire spoken of in the 
Xew Testament, is the fire of Gehenna, kept burning outside 
[Continued on next left hand page.] 



THE ANTI-SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE. 



321 



"Ye shall not surely die."— Satan. 
" Gird up thy miud to contemplation, trembling inhabitant of 
earth, 

Tenant of a hovel for a day— thou art heir of the universe 
forever ; 

For neither congealing of the grave, nor gulfing waters of the 
firmament, 

Nor expansive airs of heaven, nor dissipative fires of Gehenna, 
Nor rust, nor rest, nor wear, nor waste, nor loss, nor chance, 
nor change, 

Shall avail to quench or overwhelm the spark of soul within 
thee. 

" Thou art an imperishable leaf on the ever- green bay-tree of 
existence, 

A word from Wisdom's mouth that cannot be unspoken ; 
A ray of Love's own light, a drop in Mercy's sea; 
A creature marvelous and fearful, begotten by the fiat of 
Omnipotence. 

" I, that speak in weakness, and ye that hear in charity, 
Shall not cease to live and feel, though flesh must see 
corruption, 

For the prison-gates of matter shall be broken, and the 

shackled soul go free, 
Free for good or ill, to satisfy its appetite forever:— 
Forever — happy fate, to ripen into perfection—; forever. 

"Look to thy soul, O man! for none can be surety for his 
brother. 

Behold, for heaven — or for hell; thou canst not escape from 

Immortality ! " Proverbial Philosophy . Tupper. 

"Infants themselves, as they bring their condemnation into 
the world with them, are rendered obnoxious to punishment by 
their own sinfulness, and not by the sinfulness of another. But 
though they have not yet produced the fruits of their iniquity, 
yet they have the seed of it within them; even their whole 
nature is, as it were, a seed of sin, and therefore cannot but be 
odious and abominable to God." 

Institutes IL, 1, 8. John Calvin. 
" Man has a body and a soul. The body dies. The soul never 
dies. The souls of the good will be happy in heaven. The 
souls of the wicked will be miserable in hell. Scripture Les- 
sons. Am. Tr. Soc. 

" Oh! yet we trust that somehow good 
Will be the final goal of ill, 
To pangs of nature, sins of will, 
Defects of doubt, and taints of blood; 
61 That nothing walks with aimless feet; 
That not one life shall be destroyed, 
[Continued on next right hand page.] 

14* 



322 



THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE. 



"Thou shalt surely die. "—Jehovah. 

the walls of Jerusalem, to destroy the offal of the city, here was 
the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is unquenched ; em- 
blems of destruction, not of torment. I find nothing in the 
New Testament to warrant the terrible opinion that God sus- 
tains the life of His creatures throughout eternity, only that 
they may continue in sin and misery. That immortality is the 
gift of God through our Lord Jesus Christ, that man is mortal, 
and must put on immortality, that only he can put it on who 
becomes, through Christ, a partaker of the divine nature, and 
so an inheritor of Him ' who only hath immortality/ that eter- 
nal life is life eternal, and eternal death is death eternal, and 
everlasting destruction is destruction without remedy — this is 
the most natural, as it is the simplest reading of the New Tes- 
tament.' 5 Lyman Abbott. 

" The immortality of the soul is neither argued nor affirmed 
in the Old Testament." Perowne. 

"Eternal fixity and duration belong only to those who are in 
accordance with God." Dean Alford. 

" Hope in death can only spring from the principle of Immor- 
tality, and this principle has no root save in Christ." 

Principal Tulloch. 

" If there be one blessing more than another which the 
Scriptures agree in ascribing to Christ as its Author, and for 
which the believer is taught that he is wholly indebted to re- 
demption IT IS IMMORTALITY." De BURGH. 

" Eternal Life, as I believe, is the inheritance of those who 
are in Christ. Those who are not in Him will die the Second 
Death from which there will be no resurrection." 

R. W. Dale d.d. 

" It seems a strange way of understanding a law which 
requires the plainest words, that by death should be meant 
Eternal Life in misery." John Locke. 

" The Bible is silent on the point of an absolute and uncon- 
ditional immortality of all men." Rev. H. H. Dobney. 

" Search the Bible through from beginning to end, and you 
will nowhere find sinners addressed as immortal beings." 

Rev. Thomas Davis. 

" Christianity treats man, not as immortal, but as a candidate 
for immortality." J. Parker d.d. 

<f My mind fails to conceive of a grosser misrepresentation of 
language, than when five or six of the strongest words which 
the Greek tongue possesses signifying destroy or destruction are 
explained to mean i( maintaining an everlasting but wretched 
existence.' To translate black as white is nothing to this." 

Dr. R. F. Weymocjth. 
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THE ANTI-SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE. 



323 



"Ye shall not surely die."— Satan. 

Or cast as rubbish to the void, 
When God hath made the pile complete ; 



" Behold we know not any thing; 

I can but trust that good shall fall 
At last— far off — at last, to all 
And every winter change to spring. 

" The wish that of the living whole 
No life may fail beyond the grave, 
Derives it not from what we have 
The likest God within the soul ?" 

In Memoriam. Tennyson. 

"The Immortality of the soul is a fundamental article of the 
Christian System." Dictionary Edition 1848. Noah Webster. 

"The soul is immortal — Now this is a foundation truth, upon 
the removal of which, religion falls to the ground." Sermon, 
Matt. 10 : 28. Kobert South. 

" There need not be any hesitation in reverently declaring 
that God cannot annihilate a moral agent." Ecce Deus,p. 219. 

" I have a firm conviction that our soul is an existence of in- 
destructible nature, whose working is from eternity to eter- 
nity." Goethe. 

"Second Death. Death and Hell are to be cast into the lake 
that burnetii with fire and brimstone; that is, the bodies of thje 
wicked, once mortal or dead, and their souls united together 
shall be shut up in Tophet, where all the former torments of 
both shall be summed up with inconceivable increase, after 
which, no effect of the Divine curse shall remain anywhere but 
in that pit of endless misery." Brown's Dictionary of the Bible, 
edited by James Smith. 

" The damned shall be packed like brick in a kiln, and be so 
bound that they cannot move a limb, nor even the eyelid ; and 
while thus fixed, the Almighty shall blow the fires of hell 
through them forever." Isaac Ambrose. 

" God has revealed it to be His will to punish some of man- 
kind forever. You know not but you are one of them. 
Whether you will be saved or damned depends entirely'^m His 
will. And supposing He sees it most for His glory and the 
general good, that you should be damned, it is certainly His 
will that you should be damned. On this supposition then, 
you ought to be willing to be damned, for not to be willing to 
be damned in this case is opposing God's will! " Vol. III., paje 
14*5, Works of Samuel Hopkins d.d. 

[Continued on next right hand page.] 



321 



THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE. 



"Thou shalt surely die."— Jehovah. 

"The doom of the wicked is everywhere spoken of in the 
Holy Scripture in terms which imply the obliteration of their 
entire being and existence." Rev, W. Ker. 

" Throughout the Epistles there is not a single passage which 
could justify the assertion that the lost soul shall forever con- 
tinue to exist in torments ' Edward F. Litton. 

"Paul, Peter, John, James, and Jude all agree in teaching 
that destruction is the last judgment of God upon impenitence.' , 
PiEV. W. Griffith. 

" The final destiny of man as a sinner is that he shall be, in the 
end, as though he had never been." Rev. E. W. Taunton. 

" The common theory of Eternal misery involves God, His 
whole administration and His eternal kingdom in the deepest 
dishonor that the mind of man or angel can conceive. " 

Dr. E. Beecher. 

" It would blanch the intellect, reduce the mind of the Chris- 
tian to a state of idiocy, deprive him of life, were he adequately 
to conceive of it." Rev. W. Archer Butler. 

" Were I compelled to stand aloue, I would not shrink from 
declaring, that this doctrine of Eternal torment, directly im- 
pugns the character of God." Rev. D. Wardlaw Scott. 

"It seems all but inconceivable that when God is all in all, 
there should be some dark spot, where amid endlessly self- 
inflicted suffering, or in the enhancement of ever-enduring 
hate, rebel hands should be forever raised against the Eternal 
Father and the God of Everlasting love." Bishop Ellicott. 

. " I acknowledge my inability to admit this belief , together 
with a belief in the Divine goodness." John Foster. 

k< We would express our conviction that the idea of the im- 
mortality of the soul has no source in the Gospel; that it 
comes, on the contrary, from the Platonists, and that it was just 
when the Coming of Christ was denied in the Church, or at 
least began to be lost sight of, that the doctrine of thu immor- 
tality of the soul came in to replace that of the resurrection." 
Hopes of the Church. J. N. Darby. 

"T*hat the soul is naturally immortal is contradicted by 
Scripture which makes our immortality a gift dependent on the 
Giver." Richard Watson. 

u The wicked are never spoken of as being kept alive but as 
forfeiting life." Archbishop Whately. 

"An immortality inherent in man is an- uuscriptural fig- 
ment.*' W. F. Mortimer d.d. 

"It is worthy of remark that the doctrine of eternal 
torment is found neither in the Apostles Creed nor in ihe 
Nicene Creed, nor in the two principal Confessions of Faith 

[Continued on next left liand page.] 



THE ANTI— SCREPTITBAX DOCTRINE. 



"Ye shall not surely die."— Satan. 
" With regard to men, all are not created on equal terms; but 
some are fore-ordained to eternal lite, others to eternal destruc- 
tion. And accordingly, as each man has been created for one 
or other of these ends, we say that he has been predestixated 
to life or death." Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book III., 
c. 21, sec. 5. John Calvin. 

" Is it intolerable to burn part of thy body by holding in the 
fire ? What then will it be to surfer ten thousand times more 
forever in hell ? " Saints Best. R.Baxter. 

" In boiling waves of vengeance must I lie. 
Oh! could I curse that dreadful God and die! 
Infinite years in torment shall I spend, 
And never, never, never at an end ? 
Ah ! must I live in torturing despair 
As many years as atoms in the air ? 
When these are spent, as many thousands more 
As grains of sand that crowd the ebbing shore ? 
When these are gone, as many yet behind 
As leaves of forest shaken with the wind ? 
When these are done, as many to ensue 
As stems of grass on hills and dales that grew ? 
When these run out, as many on the march 
As starry lamps that gild the spangled arch ? 
When these expire, as many millions more 
As moments in the millions past before ? 
When all these doleful years are spent in pain, 

Till numbers drown the thought, could I suppose 
That then my wretched years were at a close, 
This would afford some ease; but ah! I shiver 
To think upon the dreadful sound— forever ! 
The burning gulf where I blaspheming lie 
Is time no more, but vast eternity. 
Bound to the bottom of the burning main, 
Gnawing my chains, I wish for death in vain. 
Just doom f since I that bear the Eternal load 
Contemned the death of an Eternal God." ? 

Gospel Sonnets. Ralph Eesetxe. 

" Sinners shall suffer the most grievous torments, both in 
soul and body, and without intermission foreoermore. These 
torments are beyond expression, and our most fearful thoughts 
cannot equal the horror of them." ? Body of Divinity, Boston. 

" Suppose that we saw with our eyes for twenty or thirty 
years together, a great furnace of fire of the quantity of the whole 
earth, and saw there Cain, and all the damned as lumps of red 
fire, and they boiling and leaping for pain in a dungeon of Ever- 
lasting brimstone — and the black and terrible devils, with long 
and sharp-toothed whips of scorpions lashing out scouiges on 
[Continued on next right hand page.] 



326 



THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE. 



" Thou shalt surely die."— Jehovah. 

of the Sixteenth Century, viz. : the otherwise rigid creed of 
the French Reformed Church, and in the thirty-nine articles of 
the Anglican Church. And we believe that if their dogma has 
been handed down throughout the Protestant Churches it is 
simply as an Inheritance from the errors of the Middle Ages 
and from the speculative theories of Platonism. If we examine 
the writings of the earlier Fathers, Barnabas, Clement of Rome, 
Hermas, Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin, Theophilus of Antioch, 
Irenaeus, and Clement of Alexandria, we find them all faithful 
to the Apostolic doctrine of the final destruction of the wicked. 
The dogma of everlasting torment did not creep into the 
Church until she yielded to the influence of Platonic philoso- 
phy." E. Petavel d.d. 

" Imagine numberless creatures produced out of nothing 

. . . . delivered over to torments of endless ages, without 
the least hope or possibility of relaxation or redemption. 
Imagine it you may: but you can never seriously believe it, 
nor reconcile it to God and goodness." Dissertation 60. 
Bishop Newton. 

''That this eternal life will be a happy, holy life is certain; 
and these terms are used to show its nature. But the term 
Eternal is used to show its duration. No other life will be 
eternal but the life of holiness and happiness " 

Rev. G. R. Kramer. 

''Immortal life is possible for man; but some alas, impris- 
oned by earthly things, will never find it, but perish in their 
own corruption." Rev. J. D. Wilson. 

"Immortality is a blessing to be sought, not a birthright 
legacy." Rev. A. A. Phelps. 

"If immortality is inherent in all men, it is very plain 
that it cannot be ' the gift of God ' to the obedient." 

Rev. Alfred Graham d.d. 

" The Scripture doctrine of Immortality has usually been dis- 
cussed as a matter of mere speculative belief concerning the 
destiny of the lost. This, however, is only the reverse side of 
the medal. The obverse side — the positive statement of the 
doctrine, tells of the reciprocal relations existing between 
Christ and His Saints. These relations are based on the pos- 
session of a common life, just as are the relationships of an 
earthly family. The non-immortality of those who do not 
possess this life is a corollary and necessary result of the doc- 
trine, but it is by no means the substance of the doctrine itself." 
William R. Hart. 

"There is a doctrine which degrades man and dishonors God? 
and makes the entire scheme of the universe a disastrous 
failure; a doctrine everywhere current, which has for ages 
dominated theology, driven multitudes to madness or atheism, 
corrupted the Gospel, obscured the light of Revelation, and 
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THE ANTI-SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE. 



327 



"Ye shall not surely die."— Satan. 

them, and if we saw our neighbors— yea, our own dear children 
— swimming and sinking in that black lake, and heard the yell- 
ing, and crying of our young ones — if we saw this, we should 
not dare to blaspheme the majesty of God." Trial and Faith. 
Samuel Rutherford. 



"Only conceive the poor wretch in the names. See how his 
tongue hangs from between his blistered lips! How it excori- 
ates and" burns the roof of his mouth, as if it were a fire-brand! 
Behold him crying for a drop of water. I will not picture the 
scene, suffice it for me to say that the hell of hells will be to 
thee, poor sinner, the thought that it is to be Forever. Thou 
wilt look up there on the throne of God — and on it shall be 
written Forever. When the damned jingle the burning irons 
of their torments, they shall say Forever. We are sometimes 
accused, my brethren, of using language too harsh, too ghastly, 
too alarming, with regard to the world to come. But if we 
could speak thunderbolts, and our every look were a lightning 
flash, and our eyes dropped blood instead of tears, no tones, 
words, gestures or similitudes of dread could exaggerate the 
awful condition of a soul which has refused the Gospel, and is 
delivered over to justice." Spurgeon. 

" Forever harassed with a dreadful tempest, they shall feel 
themselves torn asunder by an angry God, and transfixed and 
penetrated by mortal stings, terrified by the thunderbolts of 
God, and broken by the weight of His hand, so that to sink into 
any gulf would be more tolerable than to stand for a moment 
in these terrors." John Calvin. 

"As the souls of heretics are hereafter to be eternally 
burning in hell, there can be nothing more proper than for me 
to imitate the Divine vengeance by burning them on earth." 
Queen Mary as quoted by Bishop Burnet. 

"The bodies of the damned will be salted with fire, so tem- 
pered and prepared as to burn the more fiercely, and yet never 
consume." John Whitaker. 



" The world will probably be converted into a great lake or 
liquid globe of fire, — a vast ocean of fire, in which the wicked 
shall be overwhelmed, which will always be in tempest in which 
they shall be tost to and fro, having no rest day or night, vast 
waves or billows of fire continually rolling over their heads, of 
which they shall forever be full of quick sense within and 
without: their heads, their eyes, their tongues, their hands, 
their feet, their loins and their vitals shall forever be full of a 
glowing, melting fire, fierce enough to melt the very rocks and 
[Continued on next right hand page.] 



328 



THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE. 



"Thou shaft surely die."— Jehovah. 

brought fearful discredit upon the ineffable character of our 
Father in heaven : namely the doctrine that all souls are deaths 
less." William Leask d.d. 



" Paganism taught immortal-soulism before Christ or Moses 
or Abraham. Satan taught it in Eden. It cannot be true, else 
it would be incorrect to say that ' Life and immortality are 
brought to light in the Gospel." D. H. Chase ll.d. 



'* The world contains a harvest of innumerable human be- 
ings, some of whom allow themselves to follow the perishable 
destiny of animal life, while others prepare for a superior life." 
Charles Lambert. 



" If the soul cannot perish after the manner of things com- 
pared according to quantity, i. e., by division, it remains subject 
to the condition of things compared according to quality; in 
other words, it is capable of increasing and decreasing by de- 
grees in all its properties and manifestations whatever. It can 
therefore undergo gradual diminution, and perish at last by ex- 
tinction. 99 Charles Renouvier. 



" Restore the true doctrine of immortality and you will have 
the most potent weapon ever forged for the defeat of that 
Rationalism and its twin Agnosticism which are eating the 
vitals, out of our modern Christianity." M. W. Strang. 



"I am quite sure that the common opinion about this 
doctrine ot immortality is not derived from Christian origin, 
but from the dogmas of Greek philosophy which made God and 
the world equals, and naturally would find the source of divine 
and immortal life in nature, especially in the nature of man. 
The Gospel teaching us that there is no life except from God's 
will, compels us to think that there can be no Everlasting life, 
but only in God, and in those natures that are got from Hiin." 
Professor Hermann Schultz. 



<s Since I have reached and rested in the conclusion that the 
ultimate doom of the impenitent is death, and not eternal life 
in agony, a great black cloud seems to have rolled away from 
the face of God, and I see Him, not only as my loving Father, 
but as the loving Father of all His creatures." 

Prof. Clement M. Butler t>.d> 
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THE ANTI— SCRIPTUTiAL DOCTRINE. 



329 



"Ye shall not surely die."— Satan. 
elements; and also they shall eternally be full of the most 
qfiick and lively sense to feel the torments; not for one minute, 
nor for one day, nor for one age, nor for two ages, nor for a 
hundred years, nor for ten thousands of millions of ages, one 
after another, but forever and ever, without any end at all, and 
never, never to be delivered." 

Sermon Vol. VII. , p. 166. Jonathan Edwards. 

" There is within us an immortal spirit. We die to those 
around us, indeed, when the bodiiy frame, which alone is the 
instrument of communication with them, ceases to be the in- 
strument, by the absence of the mind which it obeyed. But 
though the body molders into earth, that spirit, which is of 
pure origin, returns to its purer Source." Lectures on the Phil- 
osophy of the human mind. Thomas Brown. 

Young in his description of the achievements of man on earth, 
exclaims— 

— " Look down on earth. What seest thou ? 

. . Immortals have been here 
Could less than souls immortal this have done ? " 

Night Thoughts. Night Sixth. Young-. 

"And lastly, Eternal death fills both body and soul with 
most intense pain, and the highest torment and anguish which 
can be received within a created, finite capacity. All the woes, 
griefs, and terrors which humanity can labor under, shall then, 
as it were, unite and really seize upon the soul at once. — Surely 
a bed of flames is but an uneasy thing for a man to roll himself 
upon to all eternity I The suffering which shall attend this 
estate, no tongue can express, no heart can conceive. Pain 
shall possess the body; horror, agony and despair shall rack the 
mind; so that the whole man shall be made the receptacle and 
scene of misery, the tragical scene for vengeance to act its 
utmost upon, and to show how far a creature is capable of being 
tormented, without the loss of His being! the continuance of 
which, under these circumstances, is but a miserable privilege,, 
and would gladly be exchanged for annihilation. For every 
lash which God then gives the sinner shall be with a scorpion ; 
every pain which he inflicts shall be more eager than appetite, 
more cruel than revenge; every faculty, both of soul and body, 
shall have its distinct, proper, and peculiar torment applied to it, 
and be distinctly struck there, where it has the quickest, the 
tenderest, the sharpest sense of every painful impression. " 
Sermon on the Wages of Sin. Robert South. 

" If a man were condemned to lie still, or to lie in bed in one 
posture, without turning, for seven years together, would he not 
buy it off with the loss of all his estate? If a man were put 
upon the rack for every day for three months together (suppose 
him able to live so long), what would he not do to be quit of 
his torture? Would any man curse the king to his face were he 
[Continued on next right hand page.} 



330 



THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE. 



"Thou shalt surely die."— Jehovah. 

"I know of no subject that so magnifies Christ. How it 
exalts His power, wisdom and majesty. God gave to us Eternal 
Life, and this life is in His Sou. Redemption in this sense is a 
thousand times greater than that which merely saves an immor- 
tal soul from sin and misery. It bestows the inestimable boon 
of Life, as well as pardon and bliss. This view gives a new 
meaning to the grand old coronation hymn, 'All hail the power,' 
etc. To me it gives a new power in preaching. It is like stand- 
ing on the Mount of Transfiguration rather than on Golgotha, — 
it is Life instead of death, glory instead of shame." 

C. R. Hendrickson d.d. 

" This doctrine (of immortality in sin and misery), more 
than anything else in religious teaching, is accountable 
for the open infidelity and the secret unbelief that pre- 
vail. It represents the Bible as absolutely committed to some- 
thing utterly incredible. It blots out the light that should 
lead to God. It hinders the conversion of the world. The 
thoughtful among the more civilized non-christian nations 
reject Christianity at once, on account of it. Missionaries go 
out to preach it, and are stopped in their work by misgivings, 
until they can see their way to renounce it as some are doing. 
At home, in very many cases, the impossibility of preaching 
eternal punishment often makes the preacher altogether silent 
as to that tribulation and anguish which will assuredly be the 
portion of every man who persists in doing evil." Lecture on 
Tennyson's " Despair." Thomas Walker Esq., London. 

" Such is the horror arising from the prevalent creed, that it 
is seldom applied either to living multitudes, or to to dead rela- 
tions. A hopeful case is made out for almost every one who 
dies, in direct opposition to Christ's words, that destruction is 
certain for all except those who "hear His sayings and do them." 
The effect, moreover, of the existing opinion is to lower the 
Standard of Morality to Zero; since the hell believed in is too 
dreadful for all except gigantic offenders. Thus Christ's words 
on " wrestling to enter into life," become practically inopera- 
tive. The masses harden themselves in wickedness, and Christ- 
ians deliberately set aside the Lord's lesson on the ' fewness ' 
of the saved." Life in Christ. Rev. Edward White. 

" Nowhere in the Word of God is immortality ascribed to un- 
believers. In the only four passages in which the term occurs it 
is once mentioned as the object patiently sought for by all who 
know and obey the truth (Rom. 2: 7), in another place as the 
special bestowment upon the '" called of God," according to His 
purpose (2 Tim. 1: 9, 10); in still another it is promised at the 
resurrection to all who " bear the image of Christ" (1 Cor. 15: 
51-54) ; and.finally, it is named as essentially belonging to God 
alone (1 Tim. 6: 16). I think every intelligent Bible scholar in 
Christendom will indorse the accuracy of this statement. Hea- 
then philosophers have taught, and modern poets have sung the 
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THE ANTI— SCRIPTURAL DOCTRIXE. 



331 



"Ye shali not surely die-"— Satan. 
sure to have both his hands burned off. and to be tormented 
with torments three years together? Would any man in his wits 
accept of a hundred pounds a year, for forty years, if he were 
sure to be tormented in the fire for the next hundred years 
together, without intermission? Think then what a thousand 
years may signify; ten ages; the ages of two empires. But 
this account, I must tell you is infinitely short. — A thousand 
years is a long time to be in torment; we find a fever of one and 
twenty days to be like an age in length; but when the duration 
of an intolerable misery is for ever in the height, and forever in 
beginning, and ten thousand years have spent no part of its 
term, but it makes a perpetual efflux, and is like the center of 
a circle which ever transmits lines to the circumference; this is 
a consideration so sad, that the horror of it, and the reflection 
upon its abode and duration, make a great part of the hell; for 
hell could not be hell without the despair of accursed souls; for 
any hope were a refreshment and a drop of water, which would 
help to allay those "flames, which as they burn intolerably, so 
they must burn forever." Sermon on the Foolish Exchange. 
Jeremy Taylor 



61 Think now, O sinner, what shall be thy reward when thou 
shalt meet thy Judge? How shall the adulterer satisfy lust 
when he lies on a bed of flames? The swearer shall have 
enough of wounds and blood when the devil shall torture his 
body and rack his soul in hell. The drunkard shall have plenty 
of his cups when scalding lead shall be poured down his throat, 

and his breath draw flames of fire instead of air 

Oh! what a bed is this! no feathers, but fire; no friends 
but furies; no ease but fetters; no daylight but dark- 
ness; no clocks to pass the time away, but endless eternity; 
fire eternal always burning, and never dying. Oh! who can 
endure everlasting flame? It shall not be qnenched night nor 
day; the smoke thereof shall go up forever and ever. The 
wicked shall be crowded together like bricks in a fiery furnace. 
. . What woes and lamentations shall be uttered when devils 
and reprobates and all the damned crew shall be driven into 
hell never to return! Down they go, howling, shrieking, and 
gnashing their teeth. . . What wailing, weeping, roaring, 
yelling, filling both heaven, earth and hell!" Sermon on the 
Judgment. Ebexezer Ersken"E. 



" 1 believe that Jesus Christ taught eternal torment. I do 
not accept it on his authority. — When the stiffened body goes 
down to the tomb, sad, silent, remorseless — I feel there is no 
death for the man. That clod which yonder dust shall cover, is 
not my brother. The dust goes to its place, man to his own. It 
[Continued on next right hand page.] 



332 THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE. 

"Thou shalt surely die."— Jehovah. 

universal immortality of man. without regeneration ; but surely 
with Christians at least, that ought not to weigh against the 
plain declarations of God. especially as it was Satan himself 
who first proclaimed the same stupendous lie, in the garden of 
Eden, when he said to the woman, 1 Ye shall not surely die.' 
after God had explicitly declared 'you shall.'" Lay Sermons 
by J. F. Graff. 

"We conclude, therefore, that the First death puts an end" to 
the life of the body: the Second death consists chiefly in the 
destruction of the soul." E. Petavel d.d. 

" It is only a metaphysical quibble, when it is objected that it 
is impossible for anything that exists to suffer absolute destruc- 
tion ; for we do not talk of absolute destruction, or destruction 
of substance, but are only saying, that the organized creature 
called man. beins: a sinner will be dissolved or perish under the 
punitive infliction of God's wrath. " J. H. Chamberlin. 

11 Is it so very dreadf ul a thought that there is really no im- 
mortality for man in sin — no immortality for him at all except 
in Christ/' J. M. Dexxtston. 

" That a creature must exist forever, whether God wills it or 
not — that God can give life to a creature, but is unable to with- 
draw the life He gave.. — that He created a soul, but is unable to 
let it drop out of existence, is such a monstrous absurdity, that 
it may well bear away the palm from all other absurdities." 
I. Jexxixgs. 

* But in our time another idea is being advanced into promi- 
nence in relation to this matter, and made a test of orthodoxy 
on the subject— an idea which. I venture to say, is beyond all 
expression, the wildest absurdity that could be "broached in the 
name of sound doctrine. I allude to the notion that God will 
sustain in existence to all eternity, creatures, the sole end of 
whose existence, has become active, implacable, and unchange- 
able hostility to Himself. It there is one conception in the 
whole field of human thought more monstrous than another, it 
seems to me to be that conception. I look upon this eternity of 
sinning, as the heresy of all heresies, because it contradicts and 
contravenes every other conceivable truth in its deepest es- 
sence and ground.-'-' , 

Everlasting Punishment. Rev. Fergus Ferguson. 

" In regard to the penalty of sin. I believe in the Scriptural 
doctrine, that ' the wages of sin is death,-' but I do not believe 
that *' death ? means what the Westminster Confession says it 
means— existence in unspeakable torment both of soul * and 
body in hell, for ever." 

Statement under trial for heresy of David Macrae. 

" The doctrine that the very object of the Incarnation is to 
immortalize mankind, furnishes the vertebral column, so to 

[Continued on next left hand page.] 



THE ANTI— SCBIPTIJBAIi DOCTRINE. 



'J • J 'J 



"Ye shall not surely die."— Satan. 

is then, I feel immortality. I look through the grave into 
heaven. I ask no miracle, no proof, no reasoning for me. I ask 
no risen dust to teach me Immortality. I am conscious of Lumi- 
nal Life ! " Theodore Parker. 

" Death is not an end, but a transition crisis, all the forms of 
decay are but the marks of regeneration— the secret alembics 
of vitality." Chapix. 

"All great men find eternity affirmed in the very promise of 
their faculties. " Emerson. 

" The day of our decease will be that of our coming of age; 
and with our latest breath we shall become free of the universe. 
And in some region ot infinity, and among its splendors this 
earth will be looked back on like a lowly home, and this life of 
ours be remembered like a short apprenticeship to duty." 

MOUNTFOED. 

" A man cannot doubt but that there is a God; and that ac- 
cording as he demeans himself toward Him, He will make him 
happy or miserable forever." Tillotsox. 

s< Without a belief in personal immortality, religion surely is 
like an arch resting on one pillar, like a bridge ending in an 
abyss." Max Muller. 

"The stars shall fade away; the sun himself 
Grows dim with age, and Nature sinks in years ; 
But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, 
Unhurt amidst the war of elements, 
The wreck of matter, and the crash of worlds," 

Cato. Addisox. 

"One short sleep past, we wake eternally; 
And death shall be no more; death thou shalt die." 

Doxxe. 

" Ah, the souls of those that die 
Are but sunbeams lifted higher." 

Loxgfellow. 

" The soul of man alone, that particle divine. 
Escapes the wreck of worlds, when all things fail. " 

SOMERVIELE. 

" If then all souls, both good and bad, do teach 
"With gen'ral voice that souls can never die, 
J T is not man's flat'ring gloss, but Nature's speech, 
Which like God's Oracles can never lie." 

Sir J. Davies. 

" The soul on earth is an immortal guest, 
Compelled to starve at an unreal feast; 
A spark, which upward teuds by Nature's force; 
A stream diverted from its parent source; 

[Continued on next right hand page.] 



334 



THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE. 



"Thou shalt surely die."— Jehovah. 

speak, on which the fabric of a coherent theology can be 
built." Life in Christ. E. White. 

" Human Immortality is a contradiction in terms; for what is 
human cannot be immortal, and the moment it becomes immor- 
tal it ceases to be human." Robert Ashcroft. 

"The Christian religion, in offering duration to the individ- 
ual is, as we have said explicit and logical; but it is also condi- 
tional. It is difficult for the mind reared among the familiar 
speech with which most of us dispose of this subject, to be 
alertly aware of the fact that immortality is nowhere proved to 
be a natural right, yet such is the fact. Like suffrage, immor- 
tality is not a right, but a privilege. It is not property, but a 
gift. The gift is offered to you or me upon conditions w T hich we 
can accept or deny at will. The Founder of our religion 
makes, we may say that He constitutes, the conditions. Ever- 
lasting Life is, in fact, according to this religion, bestowed by 
Jesus Christ upon the human soul. . . . 

" The conditions of immortality wholly refuse to rest upon the 
piers which hold the conditions of conquest in the life of time. 
Brute force ceases now to keep its relative value in this larger 
contest. There is what may be called a brute force of the mind, 
of which this is equally and terribly true. Sheer intellect has 
no greater chance at everlasting life than sheer muscle. Im- 
mortality is not promised by the Creator to great men. Mere 
mind holds no passport to Eternity. There is no ' limited ex- 
press ' to Paradise for able people. Goethe, for being Goethe is 
none the more likely to last forever. Frederica, so far as we 
can see, stands quite as good, or a better chance. 

" The law of selection would seem to be at once, severe and 
delicate. The obscurest mother, transmitting a pure heart to 
her boys, never having heard of protoplasm, and knowing no 
philosophy beyond her prayers, may enter into this higher con- 
tention with an equipment which the discoverer of the missing 
link might envy. It is quite conceivable that the soul of a felon 
might survive the soul of a prince or a priest. The tests of 
this world fail. Fine causes and finer sequences enter the list. 
Who are we that we should win ? What is our standard of suc- 
sess? What the temper of our weapons? . . . The stranger 
within our gates, or the servant under our feet may be fighting 
for a soul's life where we are fooling with it, and may, therefore, 
be better worth life, and so the more likely to live. For law is 
but law, and spiritual law loses nothing of its grip for gain in 
quantity and holds us none the less robustly because of a touch 
so velvet." North American Revieiv, June, I884. Elizabeth 
Stuart Phelps. 

" The Scriptural doctrine, as we have felt constrained to de- 
clare it here, removes, we believe, a great stumbling block from 
the path of believers. We are no longer compelled to conceive 

[Continued on next left hand page."} 



THE ANTI— SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE. 



335 



"Ye shall not surely die."— Satan. 

A drop dissevered from the boundless sea; 
A moment parted from eternity; 
A pilgrim panting for the rest to come; 
An exile anxious for his native home." 

Hannah Moore. 

*' The more we sink into the infirmities of age, the nearer we 
are to immortal youth. All people are young in the other 
world. That state is an eternal spring, ever fresh and ever 
flourishing. Xow to pass from midnight into noon on the sud- 
den; to be decrepit one minute, and all spirit and activity the 
next, must be a desirable change. To call this dying is an abuse 
of language." Jeremy Collier. 

"Not all the subtilties of metaphysics can make me doubt a 
moment of the Immortality of Soul, and of a beneficent Prov- 
idence. I feel it. I believe it. I desire it. I hope it, and will 
defend it to my latest breath/' Eosseatt. 

" I am fully convinced that the soul is indestructible, and that 
its acitvity will continue through eternity. It is like the sun, 
which to our eye, seems to set in night, but it has in reality gone 
to diffuse its light elsewhere." Goethe. 

" Is death the last sleep? No, it is the last final awakening.'' 
Walter Scott. 

''It is not I who die, when I die; but my sin and misery." 
Gotthold. 

M What is human is Immortal." Bulwee Lytton. 

li It is an unspeakably terrible thing for any one to be lost. 
Even to 4bose who surfer least, it is not only the loss of all, and 
a horrible lake of ever-burning fire; but there are horrible ob- 
jects filling every sense, and horrible engines and instruments 
of torture. Nor is this all. Un mortified appetites, hungry as 
death, insatiable as the grave, are so many springs of excruci- 
ating and ever increasing agonies, so many hot and stifling 
winds, tossing the swooning soul on waves of fire. And there 
will be terrible companions; and everyone utterly selfish, ma- 
lignant, fierce and devilish. There will be terrible sights and 
sounds. Fathers and sons, pastors and people, husbands aud 
wives, brothers and sisters, with swollen veins and bloodshot 
eyes, straining toward each other's throats and hearts. Upon 
such an assembly, God, who is of purer eyes than to behold 
iniquity, cannot look but with utter detestation. His face shall 
be red in His anger, His eyes shall not pity, nor shall His soul 
spare for their crying. The day of vengeance is in His heart. 
It is what His heart is set upon. Re will delight in it. He will 
tread that rebel crew in His auger, and trample them in His 
fury, and will stain His raiment with their blood. The cup of 
the wine of His fierce wrath shall contain no mixture of mercy. 
All this, and more and worse do the Scriptures declare^ and that 
[Continued on next right hand p r -igt.~[ 



336 



THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTEIXE. 



"Thou shalt surely die."— Jehovah. 

of God as possessing two different natures ; on earth tender 
and beneficent, even repaying man's ingratitude and wicked- 
ness by His mercies; but beyond the tomb, unmoved by the 
endless tortures and excruciating pains of His enemies. We 
read with horror the stories of the Inquisition, or the relation 
of the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards; of the Emperor 
Montezuma broiled on a gridiron over a slow fire; of the men 
tortured and driven mad by drops of water falling day and 
night upon their foreheads ; but what are these agonies of a 
few days or hours, hideous and revolting as they may be, in 
comparison with a scorching fire, which after millions of ages, 
shall have only begun its work? " Struggle for Eternal Life. 

E. Petavel. 

" No man can deny that God is able to destroy what He was 
able to create. No man can deny that God had a power to 
choose whether He would inflict death upon the sinner, or an 
endless life of agony. Which would He choose, the gentler or 
the more fearful doom? Will you say the latter? Why? 
There must be a reason. Is it to please Himself? He repudi- 
ates this kind of character (Ezek. 18: 23). Is it to please His 
angelic or redeemed creation? They are too like Himself to 
take pleasure in such a, course. Did no pity visit the Creator's 
bosom? They would look up in His face and plead for mercy. 
Is it to terrify from sin? To terrify whom? Not the lost; 
they are handed over forever to blasphemy and evil. Is it then 
to terrify the unf alien, and preserve them from sin ? Would it? 
What is sin? Is it not pre-eminently alienation front God? 
W 7 hat would alienate from Him so completely as the sight or 
the knowledge of such a hell as Tertullian taught? Pity, 
horror, anguish would invade every celestial breast. J fist fancy 
a criminal with us. He has been a great criminal. Let him be 
the cruel murderer ; the base destroyer of woman's innocence 
and honor; the fiendish trafficker in the market of lust; the 
cold-blooded plotter for the widow's or the orphan's inherit- 
ance. Let him be the vilest of the vile, on whose head curses 
loud, deep and many, have been heaped. He is taken by the 
hand of justice. All rejoice. He is put to death ! No ; that is 
thought too light a punishment by the ruler of the land. He 
is put into a dungeon, deprived of all the necessaries of exist- 
ence; tortured by day and by night; guarded, lest his own hand 
should rid him of a miserable life; and all this to go on till 
Nature thrusts within the prison bars an irresistible hand, and 
frees the wretch from his existence. 

Now what would be the effect upon the community, of such a 
course? The joy at the criminal's overthrow would rapidly 
change into pity, into indignation, into horror, into the wild up- 
rising of an outraged nation to rescue the miserable man 
from a tyrant worse than himself, and to hurl the infamous 
abuser of law and power from his seat. And this is but the 
faintest image of what a cruel theology would have us believe 
[Continued on next left hand page.} 



THE ANTI— SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE. 



337 



Ye shall not surely d i © Satan. 
preacher who hesitates to proclaim it has forsworn his soul, 
and is a traitor to his trust. And all this shall be forever, it 
shall never, never end. The wicked go away into everlasting 
torment. If after enduring it all for twice ten thousand times 
ten thousand years, they might have a deliverance, or, at least, 
some abatement, it were less terrible. But this may never, 
never be. There is a great gulf fixed, and they cannot pass 
from thence. Or if after suffering all this as many years as 
there are sand grains in the globe, they might then be delivered, 
there would be some hope. Or, if you multiply this sum, too 
infinite to be expressed by figures, and too limitless to be com- 
prehended by angels — by the number of atoms that compose 
the universe, and there might be deliverance when they had 
passed those abysmal gulfs of duration, then there would be 
some hope. But no! When all is suffered, and all is past, still 
all beyond is Eternity." Sermon by Rev. Wn. Davidson. 

"When thou diest, thy soul will be tormented alone; that 
will be a hell for it; but at the day of judgment thy body will 
join thy soul, and then tbou wilt have twin hells, thy soul 
sweating drops of blood, and thy body suffused with agony. 
In fire exactly like that which we have on earth, thy body will 
lie, asbestos-like, forever unconsumed, all thy veins roads for 
the feet of pain to travel on, every nerve a string on which the 
devil shall forever play his diabolical tune of Hell's Unutterable 
Lament." Sermon, Resurrection of the Dead. Spurgeon. 

" His soul is in hell, O ye children of men! While ye thus 
speak, his soul is in the beginning of those torments in which 
his body will soon have part, and which will never die." Ser- 
mon, Neglect of Divine Calls. J. Henry Newman. 

"Hell — burning high 
And guarded evermore by Justice turned 
To Wrath, that hears unmoved, the endless groans 
Of those wasting within; and sees unmoved 
The endless tear of vain repentance fall." 

Course of Time, Book X. Pollock. 

" The evil portion shall be continual without intermission of 
evil, no days of rest, no nights of sleep, no ease from labor, no 
periods of the stroke, nor taking off the hand, no intervals be- 
tween blow and blow; but a continued stroke, which neither 
shortens the life, nor introduces a brawny patience, or the toler- 
ation of an ox, but is the same in every instant, and great as 
the first stroke of lightning; the smart is as great forever as at 
the first change, from the rest of the grave to the flames of that 
horrible burning. . . . And yet this is not the worst of it ; for 
as it is continual during its abode, so its abode is forever; it is 
continual and eternal," Sermon, 2 Cor. 5; 10. Jeremy Taylor. 

" Their cursings are their hymns, bowlings their tunes, and 
blasphemies their ditties." Christopher Love. 

[Continutd on next rifjitt hand page.} 



THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTEIXE. 



"Thou shait surely die."— Jehovah. 

of our Father which is in Heaven! Nature steps in. in the one 
case and says there shall be an end. Omnipotence, in the 
other, puts forth its might to stay all escape. Forevei inJ f:>r~ 
etoerl Millions of years of agony gone, and yet the agony no 
nearer to its close ! * Not one, bin myriads to surfer thus ! Their 
endless cries! Their ceaseless gro ms ! Their interminable de- 
spair! Why, heaven and earth, and stars in their infinite num- 
ber — all worlds which roll through the great Creator's space- 
would raise one universal shout of horror at such a course. 
Love for God would give way to hatred. Apostacy would no 
longer be partial, but universal. All would stand aloof in irre- 
pressible loathing from the tyrant on the throne, for a worse 
thing than Maniehaeriu pictured would be seated there — the one 
eternal principle icon!! be the principle of ev£L n Duration and 
Nature of Future Punishment. H. Constable, 

"Let us ask the advocates of endless tortures, whether they 

are exalting God by their doctrine What interest ought 

Christians to have in all this, that they so zealously try to prove 
it of their Friend and Father ? Bow can it exalt Him ? Would 
an earthly friend be exalted, if but a millionth part were attrib- 
uted to him ? It is vain to say that He is not connected with 
this torture. The bodies of men could not be exposed to the 
intense and constant, and endless action of fire and yet be end- 
lessly kept in life and feeling without a miracle. The law which 
God has imprinted on Nature is. that whatever is subjected to 
the action of fire shall come to an end. Men's bodies are mate- 
rial, are capable of being acted on by fire, and of being con- 
sumed by it. This is God's own natural law. which He refers 
to again aud again in His Book; and if human beings are kept 
in this torture, and yet preserved alive, it must be by the imme- 
diate miraculous interference of God; and if He does this at 
all, it can be only for the purpose of torturing them. In the 
ordinary course, they would be consumed, but if the doctrine 
of endless pain be true. He keeps them in sensitive life, in 
order to punish them. Fancy, it you can. the good God exer- 
cising His miraculous powers on purpose to torture millions, 
billions, trillions of His poor creatures: and thus keeping them 
alive as long as He Himself exists, with no other view than 
endlessly to punish them: and that though they lived only a 
comparative moment of time and did only those things which 
naturally sprang from their fallen condition, which they could 
not help', and from adverse circumstances which they could not 
control. . . Could anyone give even the devil a worse character 
than this ? We seriously and solemnly ask Christians, especially 
the teachers among them, whether they can really think that 
they glorify and exalt God by attributing to Him such a pro- 
cedure as this? As for ourselves, we must humbly and ear- 
nestly, and with a broken and contrite heart, supplicate pardon 
from Him, that we have ever given countenance to what is so 
[Continued on next left hand page.] 



THE AXTI-SCRIPTUBAL DOCTRINE. 



339 



"Ye shall not surely die."— Satan. 

"Immortality! This is the crowning gift of the human soul, 
the most distinguishing glory of its nature. It imparts to it a 
value which no language can express, no figures compute. The 
spark of intelligence which you bear about in your bosom, 
which kindles in that eye, glows in that countenance, and by 
those lips gives utterance to its thoughts and emotions, is to 
survive the waste of time, — its mysterious lights will blaze on 
high when suns and stars shall have ceased to shine, — it will 
look down from its throne of immortality upon the tomb of 
worlds.'' Christian Doctrine. Hubbard Wixslow. 

" Birth into this life was the death of the embryo life that 
preceded it, and the death of this, will be the birth into some 
new mode of being." Rev. Db. Hedge. 

"Death gives us sleep, eternal youth and Immortality." 
Ritcbeb. 

1 i There is no finite life except unto death; no death, except 
unto higher life." Buxsen. 

" Death supplies the oil for the inextinguishable lamp of 

life." COLEBIDGE. 

" There is no death ; what seems so is transition; 
This life of mortal breath 
Is but a suburb of the life Elysian, 
Whose portal we call Death." 

LOXGFELLOW. 

"The soul immortal as its sire, shall never die." Moxtgom- 

EBY. 

" I feel my Immortality oversweep all pains, all tears, all time, 
all fears — and peal like the eternal thunders of the deep into 
my ears the truth— Thou livest forever. 91 Bybox. 

" We do not believe immortality because we have proved it; 
but we forever try to prove it, because we believe it." James 
Mabtixeau. 

"I have been pastor of the same Church thirty-five years. 
During all this period I have said to my Church that according 
to the teachings of Christ, revealed in the Four Gospels : 

1. There are two conditions of existence in another life. 

2. One of them is a conscious state of unutterable joy; and 
this state is endless. 

3. The other condition is a state of unutterable suffering; 
and this state is endless. 

4. There is as much reason to doubt the state of unutterable 
and endless joy as there is to doubt the state of unutterable 
and endless suffering. 

5. The design of Christ in the work of redemption is to re- 
cover those who are fearfully exposed to a state of unutterable 

[Continued on next right Jiand page.] 



340 THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE. 

"Thou shalt surely die ."—Jehovah. 
opposed to His character and revealed truth, and so injurious 
to His cause and kingdom. O ye teachers of the Bible, were 
you to attribute this deliberate, this malignant hate to our- 
selves against our fellows, we could bear the stigma; but we 
will no longer suffer you to misrepresent and malign the char- 
acter of our Beloved, our best Friend, the Source of all good- 
ness and lo^e. We utter our solemn, our indignant protest 
against it. If we could, we would post it up on every church 
and chapel door in the realm, and at every corner of every street. 
We would proclaim upon the house tops that He is not the God 
you represent Him to be. We would try to rescue His character 
and depict Him in His own attractive loveliness and goodness; 
and not in that garb by which you have alienated millions from 
Him. Those who love Him, do so in spite of this part of your 
teaching. 

" Why, O why, will you alienate man? Why will you persist 
in thus falsifying the character of your heavenly Master? You 
are certainly bearing false witness against God." Man Next to 
God. H. S. Waeleigh. 



THE ANTI— SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE. 



341 



"Ye shall not surely die."— Satan. 
and endless suffering, and to secure to them a state of unutter- 
able joy. 

6. The state of unutterable and endless joy in the untried 
future will be entirely the result of a certain manner of living 
on earth. 

7. The state of unutterable and endless suffering in the un- 
tried future will be entirely the result of a certain manner of 
living on earth. 

8. The present life is of God the only state of probation, and 
the destiny of each person is then forever fixed. of him. 

Now, have I daring my ministry of thirty-five years uttered 
the same doctrines which Christ uttered .... or have I all this 
period been bewildered in a doctrinal muddle ? If all this while 
I have been teaching erroneous doctrines, I certainly would 
thank some person, greatly enlightened by the Holy Spirit into 
the Mysteries of Godliness to reveal to me my mistake." Chris- 
tian Mirror, Portland, Me., May 3, 1884. D. Garland, Con- 
gregational Minister. 



INDEX 

OF THE PRINCIPAL SCRIPTURE CITATIONS. 



Note. 



Passages incidentally or indirectly quoted or referred to, are too 
numerous to be included in this list. 



Genesis 1 : 26, 
Genesis 2: 4, 
Genesis 2: 17, 
Genesis 3: 14-19, 
Genesis 3: 21, 
Genesis 3 : 22, 
Genesis 4: 2-5, 
Genesis 5 : 2, 

Numbers 14: 21, 



145- 



PAGE 

132 
147 
126, 147 
296, 299 
159 
135, 149 
159 
133 

299 



Deuteronomy 3: 40, 173 

1 Samuel 2 : 9, 218 

Job, numerous citations, 181 

Psalms, numerous citations,182 

Psalm 1: 1-6, 218 

Psalm 2: 1-12, - 218 

Psalm 8 : 5, 134 

Psalm 49: 1-20, 219 

Psalm 72: 1-20, 300 

Psalm 104: 29, 30, 130 

Psalm 139: 24, 218 

Psalm 146: 4, 131 

Proverbs, numerous cita- 
tions, 183, 219 



Ecclesiastes 3 

Isaiah 1 : 28, 
Isaiali 21: 11 
Isaiah 33 : 
Isaiah 34 : 
Isaiah 35 : 
Isaiah 41 : 11, 
Isaiah 53: 11 
Isaiah 55 



14, 
9, 10, 
10, 



12, 13, 



131 

183 
220 
242 
274 
300 
183 
297 
300 



PAGE 

Jeremiah 23 : 28-32, 1 18 

Ezekiel 13 : 22, 62 

Ezekiel 18 : 20, 183 

Ezekiel 18: 31, 220 

Daniel 2 : 44, 300 

Daniel 12: 1-3, 243 

Obadiah 16, 183 

Nahum 1 : 15, 183 

Malachi 4: 1, 183, 221,301 

Apocrypha, 166 

Matthew 3: 10, 12, 185 

Matthew 7: 13, 107 

Matthew 8: 28, 301 

Matthew 10: 28, 40, 185 
Matthew 13: 38-40, 185, 297 

Matthew 24: 3, 246 

Matthew 24: 21-30, 243 

Matthew 25: 1-13, 223 

Matthew 25: 41, 250 
Matthew 25 : 46, 225, 244 

Mark 3 : 28, 29, 252 

Mark 9 : 43-50, 254 

Luke 4: 31, 301 

Luke 13: 1-5, 1S6 

Luke 16: 19-31, 257 

John 1:12, 285 

John 3: 3-17, 199 

John 3 : 36, 253 

John 4: 10, 201 

John 5: 21-40, 201 

John 5: 53,54, 111 

343 



344 INDEX OF SCRIPTURE. 



PAGE 



John 6: 27-63, 202 

John 8: 21, 204 

John 8: 44, 141 

John 10: 9-16, 204 

John 10 : 27, 28, 154, 167, 205 

John 11: 25, 26, 111, 154, 205 

John 14: 19, 154 

John 15: 5, 6, 186 

John 17: 1-3, 205 

Acts 3: 23, 186 
Acts 8 : 20, 186 
Acts 13: 46-48, 208 

Romans, many citations, 209 

Romans 1: 18-32, 85 

Romans 2: 6,7, 167 

Romans 2: 12, 187 

Romans 5 : 12, 108, 143, 228 

Romans 5: 17, 111 

Romans 6: 21, 187 

Romans 7 : 5, 187 

Romans 9 : 22, 187 

1 Corinthians, many cita- 
tions, 209, 210 
1 Corinthians 15 : 12-58, 78, 228 
1 Corinthians 15: 17, 187 
1 Corinthians 15: 24-26, 302 

1 Corinthians 15: 45-47,153, 284 

2 Corinthians 4: 3, 86 
2 Corinthians 4: 18, 284 
2 Corinthians 11: 3, 86 

Ephesians 1 : 10, 302 

Philippians 2: 10, 295 
Philippians 3: 16, 187 

Colossians 1: 19, 295 



PAGE 

2 Thessalonians 1 : 9, 187, 249 

2 Thessalonians 2: 8, 302 

2 Thessalonians 2: 10, 1S7 

Hebrews 2 : 14, 301 

Hebrews 6 : 4-8, 187 

Hebrews 8 : 7, 286 

Hebrews 9: 28, 287 

Hebrews 10 : 26, 188 

1 Timothy 4: 8, 111 

1 Timothy 6: 5, 187 

2 Timothy 1 : 9, 10, 168 
2 Timothy 2 : 17, 18, 290 
2 Timothy 4:3, 86 

James 1 : 15, 188, 289 

2 Peter 2: 1, 86 

2 Peter 2: 12, 188 

2 Peter 3 : 7-9, 188, 280 

2 Peter 3: 10-13, 203 

1 John 1: 1, 211 

1 John 2: 25, 211 

1 John 3: 15, 188, 211 

1 John 5: 10-12, 26, 112, 211 

Revelation 14: 11, 268 

Revelation 18: 21, 273 

Revelation 19: 3, 268, 273 

Revelation 19: 20,21, 276 

Reevlation 20: 1-3, 276 

Revelation 20: 2, 141 

Revelation 20 : 9, 10, 268 

Revelation 20: 12, 188 

Revelation 20: 11-15, 305 

Revelation 21 and 22, 305, 306 

Revelation 22 : 1-5, 151 



INDEX 

OF AUTHORS CITED OR REFERRED TO. 



128, 



Abbott, Lyman 
Adams, Prof. 
Addison, 
Aiford, Dean 
Alger, W. R. 
Ambrose, 

Apostles, Teaching of 

Arnobius, 
Ashcroft, 
Athenagoras, 
Athenasius, 
Augustine, 



Baker, L. C. 155 
Barnabas, 
Barnes, A. 
Bartlett, 168, 190, 

Barton, J. 
Baxter, 
Beecher, E. 
Boardman, G. D. 
Boston, 
Brown, T, 
Brown's Diet, 
Bunsen, 
Burnet, Bishop 
Butler, C. M. 
Butler, Wm. A. 
Byron, 
Byse, C. 



PAGE 

322 
21 
333 
146, 322 
82, 260 
42, 323 
the 
41,312 

41, 318 
334 

42, 315 
42 

42, 46 

, 247, 274, 291 
41 

143, 278, 289 
235, 240, 244, 
248, 267, 269 
250 
325 
324 
171, 320 
325 
329 
323 
339 
91 
328 
325 
339 
20 



Calvin, J. 321, 325, 327 

Calmet's Diet., 136 

Chapin, 333 

Channing, W. E. 168 

Chamberlain, J. H. 332 

Chase, D. H. 328 

15* 



Clark, A. 

Clement of Eome, 
Clement of Alex., 
Coleridge, 
Collier, 
Constable, H. 
Cook, Joseph 
Cocorda, O. 
Congregational Creed, 
Cremer, Prof. 
Cruden, 
Cyprian, 



Dale, R. W. 
Dauforth, J. R, 
Darby, J. N. 
David, King 
Davies, Sir J, 
Davis, T. 
Davidson, W. 
De Burgh, W. 
Denniston, J. M. 
Dobney, H. H. 
Donne, 
Dorner, Dr. 
Drummond, Prof. 
Dryden, 
D wight, T. 

Edwards, J. 
Ellicott, Bishop 
Eisenmenger, 
Emerson, R. W. 
Erskine, E. 
Er ski ne, R. 
Ezekiel, Prophet 

Ferguson, F. 
Foster, John 

345 



PAGE 
146 
41, 312 
315 
339 
335 
63, 338 
75 
20 
193 
109 
144 
42 

23, 322 
289 
324 
308 
333 
322 
337 

197, 322 
332 
322 

319, 333 
20 
213 
319 

164, 309, 315 

319, 329 
324 
260 
333 
331 
325 
309 

332 
324 



346 



IXDEX OF AUTHORS. 



Garland, D. 
Gess, Dr. 
Gibbon, 
Goethe, 
Gotthold, 
Graham, A. 
Graff, J. F. 
Greenfield, W. 
Gregory, Thau. 
Griffith, W. 



PAGE 
341 
20 
84 

323, 335 
335 
326 
332 
107 
312 
324 



Hart, W. R. 326 
Hedge, Dr. 339 
Hendrickson, C. R. 330 
Hernias, 41,312 
Hippolytus, 42, 315, 317 

Hitchcock, Pres. E. 77 
Hopkins, S. 52, 293, 323 

Hodge, Prof. 137 
Hobbs, W. A. 20, 232 

Huntington, W. R. 89, 125 



Ignatius, 
Irenseus, 
Isaiah, Prophet 
Ives, Prof. 

James, Apostle 
Jamieson, Canon 
Jennings, I. 
Jerome, 
Job, 
John, 

John Baptist, 
Josephus, 
Justin, 

Kramer, G. R. 
Kerr, 

Lactantius, 
Lambert, C. 
Lange, 
Leask, W. 
Leathes, Stanley 
Leo X. 3 
Litton, E. F. 
Locke, J. 70, 80, 

Longfellow, 
Love, C. 
Luther, Martin 
Lytton, Bulwer 



41, 312 
41, 150, 316 

308 
274 

310 
21 
332 
42 
308 
310 
310 
131 

42, 314 

326 
324 

41, 318 

328 
128 
328 
159 
46, 317 
324 
115, 322 
333, 339 
337 
51, 318 
335 



PAGE 

Macre, D. 332 

Malachi, Prophet 310 

Martineau, J. 339 

Mary, Queen 327 

Milton, J. 103, 129, 149 

Minton, S. 117, 218, 279 

Montgomery, 339 

Mohammed, 319 

Moschus, 83 

More, Hannah 335 

Mortimer, W. F. 324 

Mountford, 333 

Midler. Max 333 

Munger, T. T. 118 

Xevrman, J. H. 337 

Xevrton, Bishop 326 



322, 



326, 332, 336 



38, 83, 84, 



Obadiah, 
Olshausen, 
Origen, 

Paul, Apostle 
Parker, Joseph 
Parker, Theo. 
Perowne, 
Perry, Rev. J. 
Petavel, E. 
Peter, Apostle 
Phelps, Eliz. Stuart 
Phelps, A. A, 
Plato, 
Pollock, 
Poly carp, 
Pope, A.' 

Presbyterian, Confession 

Renouvier, C. 
Ritcher, 
Robinson, E. 
Rosseau, 
Rothe, R. 
Rutherford, S. 

Satan, 
SchafT, P. 
Schultz, H. 
Scott, D. W. 
Scott, Walter 
Simmons, 
Smith, James 



310 
171, 320 
42, 45, 312 

310 
323 
333 
322 
166 
336 
312 
334 
326 
311 
337 
41 
319 
319 

32S 
339 
111 
335 
318 
327 

309 
290 
328 
324 
335 
167 
323 



INDEX OF AUTHORS. 



347 



Smith, J. Pye 
Soinerville, 
Socrates, 
Solomon, 
South, Robert 
Spurgeon, 
Stokes. Prof. 
Strang, M. W. 
Stuart, Moses 



PAGE 

128 
333 
38 
308 
323, 330 
327. 337 
21 
32S 
278 



Taunton, E. W. 

Tatian, 42, 
Taylor, Jeremy 68, 331, 
Tennyson, 

Tertullian, 315, 
Theophilus, 41, 135, 

Thorn, D. 

Thomson. Archbishop 
Tillottsou, 172, 



324 

315 

337 

323 

317 

314. 

320 

320 

333 



Tinling, J. 

Trench, 

Tulloch, 

Tupper, 

Tyndale, 



F. B. 



PAGE 
97 

259 
322 
321 
318 



Walker, T. 330 
Warleigh, S. H.74, 320, 322, 340 
Watson, Richard 324 
Webster, N. 108, 110, 323 

Weymouth, R. F. 322 
Whately, Archbp. 84, 120, 324 
White, Edward 123, 171, 330,334 
Whitaker, 327 
Wilson, J. D. 326 
Winslow, H. 339 

Young, 329 

Zoroaster, 293 



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